
Class ~ByV,^/; 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



FORWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES 

EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 



THE UPLIFT OF CHINA 



(N. B. — Special helps and denominational missionary literature 
for this course can be obtained by correspondence with the Secretary 
of your mission board or society.) 



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gCI.A3164!)9 

A*- A I 




ARTHUR H SMITH 



THE 
UPLIFT OF CHINA 



Revised Edition 



ARTHUR H. SMITH 

(f 

Forty Years a Missionary in China 



I 9 I2 

Missionary Education Movement 

of the United States and Canada 

NEW YORK 



y*7 



Copyright, 1907, by 
Young People's Missionary Movement 

New York 



Copyright, 1912, by 

Missionary Education Movement 

of the United States and Canada 

New York 



TO THE 
CHRISTIAN PEOPLE OF AMERICA 
WHO RECOGNIZE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY 
FOR WORLD BETTERMENT AND THE UNPREC- 
EDENTED OPPORTUNITY WHICH CHANGED 
CONDITIONS AFFORD TO THE PRESENT 
GENERATION THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
IS INSCRIBED 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Editorial Statement, First Edition xi 

Editorial Statement, Revised Edition xiii 

Foreword xv 

I A General View of China I 

II A Great Race With a Great Inheritance 27 

III The Defects of the Social System S3 

IV The Strength, and Weakness of the Religions. 83 
V Uplifting Leaders 115 

VI Forms of Missionary Work 155 

VII Missionary Problems 183 

VIII Transformation, Condition, and Appeal 207 

APPENDIXES 

A The Orthography and Pronunciation of Chinese 

Names 251 

B Bibliography 254 

C Area and Population 259 

D Opium Edict, 1906 260 

E Dates of Important Events in Modern Chinese 

History 262 

F Table of Chinese Dynastic Dates 264 

G Statistics of Protestant Missions in China 265 

Index 267 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Arthur H. Smith Frontispiece 

Map Showing Lines of Transportation Page 7 

"Map Showing Areas of Coal, Iron, and Soil. " 12 

Traveling Cobbler, A Unique Sawmill " 18 

Watch Tower in Examination Halls, Nan- 
king " 44 

Government Examination Halls, Nanking " 44 

Door of Clan House, Clan House " 58 

A Confucian Temple, Buddhist Temple, 

Taoist Temple " 86 

Worshiping at the Family Altar " 96 

Blue Dome, in Temple of Heaven, Peking " 96 

A Thousand Years of Missionary Service " 150 

Hope-Wilhelmina Hospital, Amoy " 162 

Hopkins Memorial Hospital, Peking " 162 

St. John's University, Shanghai " 168 

North China Union College, near Peking " 168 

Peking University " 168 

Chi-nan Fu Museum " 174 

Mission Press, Shanghai " 174 

China's Republican Leaders, Sun Yat Sen and 

Yuan Shih Kai " 188 

New Government College, Nan-yang " 212 

Association Field Day, Shanghai < " 212 

Western Innovation, Shanghai " 212 

Missionary Map. ..••••••• , End 



EDITORIAL STATEMENT 

FIRST EDITION 

According to the rules of the Young People's 
Missionary Movement, the Editorial Committee 
has liberty to make any alterations that it may 
consider necessary in the manuscripts submitted 
to it for publication. In making such changes it 
is customary to consult with the author. The 
absence of Dr. Smith in China, however, has 
made it impossible for the Committee to secure 
his cooperation in its work of revision. It 
wishes, therefore, to state that Dr. Smith is in no 
wise responsible for any of the changes in the 
original manuscript, which have been made with 
the idea of increasing its effectiveness as a text- 
book for mission study. The whole of Chapter 
III and nearly all of Chapter V have been re- 
written, and insertions, a part of which are 
quotations from other writers or from Dr. 
Smith's other works, have been made in Chapters 
I, II, and IV. Other changes have been made 
by way of elision and rearrangement of para- 
graphs. The Committee regrets earnestly that 
it has been impossible to confer with Dr Smith 
on the subject of these changes and to secure his 
assistance in making them. 



XI 



EDITORIAL STATEMENT 

REVISED EDITION 

This revised edition has been prepared to keep 
the mission study constituency in touch. with the 
most recent events in China. Many books are 
coming from the press these days, all of which 
are out of date before they can reach the public. 
Events are moving so rapidly in China that no 
one can keep pace without having read the last 
edition of the daily paper. 

The material in the first six chapters remains 
unchanged. The last two chapters have been 
entirely rewritten by the author and reached the 
Committee early in May. The questions and 
references for these two chapters have also been 
revised. 

The Missionary Education Movement has en- 
gaged an author in China who is now writing on 
the changing conditions, and as soon as the new 
Republic becomes more firmly established he will 
forward his manuscript for publication. 

May 28, 19 12. 



FOREWORD 

The problem of China is to a large extent the 
problem of the world. Even to those who have 
hitherto taken but slight interest in " world- 
politics," it is becoming dimly discernible that 
in Eastern Asia the Occident has greater and 
more difficult questions than it has ever yet set- 
tled, or even faced. War, diplomacy, commerce, 
industrial expansion, governmental reforms, 
have all had or are having their part in the un- 
precedented alinement of the Far East, but it 
is the inevitable weakness of each and all of them 
that they never settle anything, while they tend 
to unsettle everything. Those who recognize 
that moral and spiritual forces ultimately rule 
the world will increasingly feel that the West 
owes it to the ancient East to pay back a part of 
its age-long debt by helping to lay deep the foun- 
dation of an Oriental Christian civilization. 

In a necessarily compendious outline such as 
the present, it is impracticable to illustrate ade- 
quately the amount and the quality of the work 
which Christian missions have done and are 
doing in China. For this reason it is the more 
essential freely to use collateral helps, to which 
end a small bibliography is appended. It is 



xvl Foreword 

greatly to be hoped that those who read this 
book may never lose their interest in its subject 
nor cease their study of it. 

In the great century upon which we have en- 
tered it is important that the rising generation 
should have a large funded knowledge of the 
part which the Far East has played in the history 
of the world hitherto, and a clear perception of 
the much larger part which it is to take in the 
immediate future, and of the duties and privi- 
leges of Americans to contribute to the peace of 
the world by helping to establish in it the king- 
dom of God. 

Arthur H. Smith. 

Shanghai, China, December 25, 1906. 



A GENERAL VIEW OF CHINA 



China bulks large because she now has a popula- 
tion of 400,000,000 — three fourths the people of the 
Pacific basin — whose industry, energy, economy, 
perseverance, and fruitfulness make them the 
Anglo-Saxons of the Orient. China sustains this 
immense population wholly by farming and such 
crude manufacturing as can be carried on by hand. 
China is just beginning to accept modern inventions 
and to introduce modern machinery; and with far 
the largest and toughest, most industrious and most 
economical laboring class on our globe, an era of 
vast industrial expansion is immediately before her. 
Moreover, China is now beginning to construct rail- 
roads and to open the largest and finest coal and 
iron mines thus far known to man. Baron Rich- 
tofen, after a laborious investigation of many years, 
submitted to the German government a three-vol- 
ume report of the coal and iron resources of China, 
showing that they are the finest in the world. He 
found coal in fifteen of the eighteen provinces exam- 
ined by him ; and in the province of Shan-hsi alone he 
reported enough coal to supply the human race for 
several thousand years. Side by side with these 
supplies of coal, Baron Richtofen found vast supplies 
of iron ore. The German government was so 
amazed by the Baron's reports that an expert com- 
mission was sent to China in 1897 to re-examine his 
data, and this commission fully verified Baron Rich- 
tofen's estimates. 

—Bishop J. W. Bashford. 



I 

A GENERAL VIEW OF CHINA 

IF the unknown people who at an unknown Favorable 
Location of 
time from an unknown place of departure, china 

but probably from the extreme west of Asia, 
started on their march to the extreme east, were 
consciously choosing their destiny, they could not 
have chosen better nor more wisely. The country 
which we call China, but for which the Chinese 
equivalent is Middle Kingdom (now more appro- 
priately expanded into Central Empire), is one 
of the most favorably situated regions on the 
earth's surface. Lofty mountains give rise to a 
magnificent river system; there is a coast-line of 
perhaps two thousand miles, a fertile soil, a tem- 
perate climate, and every variety of production. 
China lies wholly in what is known as " the belt 
of power," within which all the great races of 
mankind have had their origin and have worked 
out their destiny. 

The Chinese Empire * is composed of several ^ a sions and 
divisions, known as China Proper, or the Eigh- 
teen Provinces, with the dependencies of Man- 

1 To maintain unity in customs and religions, the text of this 
book has been confined to China Proper. 



2 The Uplift of China 

churia, Mongolia, Tibet, and Chinese Turkes- 
tan. A large part of this territory has never 
been surveyed at all, so that varying estimates of 
the area are readily accounted for. The figures 
quoted are from a standard authority, 1 but it must 
be understood that they are approximations only, 
and merely represent ' the last guess at the case/ 
China Proper comprises 1,532,420 square miles; 
Manchuria, 363,610; Mongolia, 1,367,600; 
Tibet, 463,200; Turkestan, 550,340; making a 
total of 4,277,170 square miles. With this may 
be compared the area of the United States, to- 
gether with Alaska, and the Hawaiian Islands, 
which with both the land and the water area of 
the last two divisions, is given as 3,567,563 
square miles. Manchuria is a little larger than 
the province of Quebec and three times the size 
of the British Isles. 
Population T ne question of the population of China is one 
of the essentially insoluble riddles of contempo- 
raneous history. In 1904 Mr. Rockhill, 2 after a 
careful inquiry, came to the conclusion that all 
the official estimates made within the past one 
hundred and fifty years are far in excess of the 
truth, and that the number of the inhabitants of 
China Proper at the present time is probably less 
than 270,000,000. The figures usually quoted 
are those furnished by the Chinese government, 
as the result of an estimate made for the purpose 

1 Statesman's Year-Book, 1906. 

2 American Minister to China, 1907. 



A General View of China 3 

of the apportionment of the indemnity of 1901. 
According to this, the population of the Eighteen 
Provinces is 407,253,030, or about five and one- 
third times as large as that of the United States 
at the census of 1900. The population of Man- 
churia was estimated by the same authority as 
16,000,000; that of Tibet at 6,500,000; that of 
Mongolia at 2,600,000 ; and that of Turkestan as 
1,200,000; making a grand total for the whole 
empire of 433,553,030. On the whole, one may as 
well assume the round number of 400,000,000 as 
a working hypothesis for the population of China, 
although in the opinion of many good judges the 
figures may be much too large. On the fore- 
going basis, the population per square mile would 
be 266, the most dense being that of Shan-tung, 
with 683 to the square mile, and the least dense 
that of Kuang-hsi, with 67. 

There is far more uniformity of size in the p r z e vi ° n f c *g C 
eighteen provinces than in the States of the 
American Union. The largest is Ssu-ch'uan, 1 
which has 218.480 square miles, which may be 
compared with Texas with its 262,290 square 
miles; but while Texas had in 1900 something 
over 3,000,000 people, Ssu-ch'uan is supposed to 
have about 69 millions, and that province, with 
the neighboring one of Kuei-chou (next to the 
smallest in population of all the provinces) had 
a population larger than that of the whole United 

1 For the pronunciation and location of geographical names, see 
Index. j 



4 The Uplift of China 

States at the last census. The smallest of the 
provinces is Che-chiang, which is a trifle larger 
than the State of Indiana, but which has a popu- 
lation nearly five times as great. 
Scenery j ^ e traveler who passes through beautiful 
Japan to northern China, with its unvarying 
levels, the view is distinctly disappointing. But 
the Chinese Empire is broad and has every va- 
riety of landscape, lofty mountains (although 
these are the exception), the sublime gorges of 
the Yang-tzii, and in the south-central and south- 
ern provinces a semi-tropical luxuriance of vege- 
tation most pleasing and attractive to the eye. 
In mountainous regions, especially, temples are 
located with great skill so as to command the 
most advantageous sites, combining a view of 
man's industry with a secure retreat from the 
cares of dusty earth. The pagoda is one of 
the few benefits which Buddhism has conferred 
on China, a relic of a period when faith was active 
and vital, instead as at present a mere historical 
reminiscence. Many of the bridges over Chinese 
canals are extremely picturesque, while the sus- 
pension-bridges over the rivers of the southwest 
made of bamboo ropes have attracted the admira- 
tion of all travelers. In the southern portions of 
China, city walls are found mantled with ivy, 
although undue sentimentalism is perhaps 
checked by the pervasive presence in the canals 
below of boatloads of liquid manure. 



A General View of China 5 

China is cut through by many great rivers, of Yang-tzu 
which the mighty Yang-tzu, and the Huang Ho, 
or Yellow River, are the chief. Each of these 
rises in the mountains of Tibet, and finds its 
way eastward to the sea. The Yang-tzu, which 
is 60 miles wide at its mouth, with its numerous 
tributaries is to China what the Mississippi and 
Amazon are to the United States and South 
America. It is navigable by large ocean steamers 
to Han-k'ou, more than 600 miles from its mouth. 
Steam vessels run to I-ch'ang*, about 400 miles 
farther up. Beyond this the famous Yang-tzu 
gorges begin, and although steamers have made 
the ascent to Chung-ch'ing, about 725 miles 
above, the rapids are so dangerous that the 
route is at present impracticable. Each of the 
" Four Streams," which give their name to Ssu- 
ch'uan, is an important avenue of trade. 

The Yellow River, on the contrary, which Yeiiow River 
makes a vast circuit through the northwest of the 
empire, passing through regions of clay and 
sand, is not only for the most part useless for 
navigation, but richly deserves the name of 
" China's Sorrow," on account of perpetual over- 
flows, its frequent changes of channel, and the im- 
mense expense of guarding against the breaking 
of the artificial banks, which are generally com- 
posed merely of earth, reinforced by stalks of 
sorghum. In the year 1887, especially, when the 
Yellow River completely altered its course, find- 



6 The Uplift of China 

ing its way by devious routes southward to the 
sea, it was the occasion of terrible disaster, count- 
less villages being suddenly swept away like ants 
under a rain spout. 
Artificial The canals of China, largely found in the cen- 

Waterways , < 

tral provinces, are numerous, and date from a 
time when none such existed in Europe. The so- 
called Grand Canal extends from Hang-chou, the 
capital of Che-chiang, crossing the Yang-tzu and 
Yellow Rivers, to Lin-ch'ing in Shan-tung, there 
entering a river flowing to Tientsin. The canal 
was formerly a great artery for the transport 
of the imperial tribute grain, but upon the adop- 
tion of the sea route it became superflous for that 
purpose, for which it has not been used since 
1900. 
interior All but the mountainous provinces have rivers 
of considerable importance, and no people ever 
better understood the art of using navigable 
waters than the Chinese. Relatively insignificant 
streams like the Wei River, with which the Grand 
Canal unites, convey a traffic beyond all propor- 
tion to their size. Chinese craft are modeled 
after the water-fowl, not after the fish, and can 
traverse very shallow water. Some varieties of 
specially constructed double-enders carry sur- 
prising loads, while drawing only a few inches of 
water. The sails of cotton or of matting hang 
loosely to huge masts, and being stiffened with 
bamboo poles appear cumbrous and clumsy, yet 



A General View of China 



with these the boatmen can sail very close to the 
wind, and in general they manage their boats 
with a skill elsewhere unsurpassed. With a few 
minutes' work the mast may be removed and laid 



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fHAl-NA)/ Grand Canal — 

I >* Railway lines,builti..i.-i;-i.* 
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flat, as in case of head winds, to economize re- 
sistance, or in passing under bridges. 

In striking contrast to the number and the im- Lak «* 
portance of its rivers, are the fewness and the 



8 The Uplift of China 

unimportance of China's lakes, of which those 
best known are the P'o-yang, and the Tung-t'ing, 
each of them shallow, and each highly untrust- 
worthy at certain stages of water. 

The Great The Great Plain extends from the Yang-tzu 
River to the mountains which divide Chih-li 
from Shan-hsi and Manchuria, and supports a 
population estimated at more than a hundred 
millions, reminding one in density of inhabitants 
of the province of Bengal. It is largely alluvial in 
its origin. In many wide regions incalculable 
harm has been done by the devastations of the 
rivers which the Chinese have not been able to 
control. Flooding is often followed by the ap- 
pearance of a nitrous efflorescence, injurious, and 
often fatal to the growth of crops. 

The Loess ^he i oess so ii occurs mainly in an extensive 
region of which the province of Shan-hsi is the 
center. It consists of a peculiar brownish earth 
penetrated with minute porous tubes running 
from above downward, which by capillary attrac- 
tion, when there is sufficient water, draw up 
moisture from below. At other times drought and 
famine are synonymous terms. These deposits 
are now considered to have been formed by age- 
long dust-storms. The terraces of the loess 
country are one of the sights of China, as are the 
caves dug in this soil for dwellings, which, though 
damp, dark, and smoky, serve as homes for great 
numbers of the poor. This soil with adequate 



A General View of China 9 

rain is naturally rich without fertilization. The 
loess deposits, owing to the frequent and immense 
fissures, are a great obstruction to travel, and are 
proving a difficult problem for the builders of 
railways. 

The Japan Current, prevented by outlying is- The Climate. 
lands from reaching the shore, has less effect 
upon China than has the Gulf Stream on North 
America. As Dr. Williams mentions, " the aver- 
age temperature of the whole empire is lower than 
that of any other country in the same latitude, 
and the coast is subject to the same extremes as 
the Atlantic States. Canton is the coldest place 
on the globe in its latitude, and the only place 
within the tropics where snow falls near the sea- 
shore." While the climate is in general much 
more regular in its periodicity than that of the 
United States, it varies greatly in a series of 
years. At Peking the thermometer ranges from 
zero (Fahrenheit) to above 100 degrees, yet the 
cold is complained of as more penetrating than in 
much higher latitudes, although the winters are 
dry. In the warmer months, southern and cen- 
tral China are oppressively hot, and, as in India, 
the night often gives little relief, while, in the 
northern provinces, this is not usually the case. 
Ssu-ch'uan is largely damp and steamy in sum- 
mer, the number of clear days being few when 
compared with the north. In northern China 
there are peculiar electrical conditions which af- 



io The Uplift of China 

feet unfavorably the nervous system of many for- 
eigners. 
Rainfall The so-called rainy season in China is to a con- 
siderable extent dependent upon the southwest 
monsoon. The amount of the rainfall varies 
from 70 inches in Canton, to 36 in Shanghai, and 
16 in Chih-li, which are the averages of several 
annual observations, but the variations in succes- 
sive years are marked. On the Great Plain three 
fourths of the rain generally falls during July 
and August. In that region the spring rains 
are generally scanty and often almost absent. 
That this is no new circumstance is indicated by 
the ancient adage that " Rain in spring is as pre- 
cious as oil." Among the many reforms needed 
in China a redistribution of the rainfall is one of 
the most urgent — a much larger supply in spring 
and in the late autumn, and much less in summer. 

Typhoons The coast of China is liable to terrible typhoons, 
one of the most terrific of which occurred in 
September, 1906, in Hongkong, almost without 
warning, resulting in the loss of many thousand 
lives, in the wrecking of steam vessels of all 
sorts and sizes, and involving a loss estimated 
at five million dollars, all in the space of less than 
two hours. The destructive land tornadoes so 
common in the United States, appear to be al- 
most or quite unknown in China. 

Diseases Epidemic diseases, while common in China, 
are much less fatal than in India. At intervals 



A General View of China n 

Asiatic cholera commits fearful ravages which 
are practically unchecked. Small-pox, diphtheria, 
and some other diseases may be said to be both 
endemic and epidemic, never wholly absent, and 
not infrequently recurring with extreme violence. 
The bubonic plague has firmly rooted itself in the 
southeastern part of China, and in Hongkong, 
and the percentage of mortality, largely although 
not exclusively among the Chinese, is in this time 
of enlightenment unprecedented. Tubercular 
affections are perhaps the most fatal to the 
Chinese. Many of the foregoing diseases are 
entirely preventable, the high death-rate being 
due to the dense population, and to the equally 
dense ignorance of sanitary laws, as well as to 
complete indifference to them when pointed out. 
Yet foreigners in China are probably as health- 
ful as in their native lands, with similar climatic 
conditions. It may be mentioned incidentally that 
in the early part of 1903 there were seven men 
still engaged in active missionary service in 
China who arrived in the ' fifties/ 

The mineral resources of China aopear to be Mineral 

x r > Resources 

practically inexhaustible, and are as yet virtually 
untouched. Coal and iron, twin pillars of mod- 
ern industry, exist in quantities elsewhere un- 
surpassed. The coal-bearing areas alone have 
been estimated at 419,000 square miles, a terri- 
tory larger by some 13,000 square miles than 
that of all New England, together with all the 



12 



The Uplift of China 



states bordering on the Atlantic coast from New 
York to Florida. Every traveler through Shan- 
hsi is struck with the evidence not only of over- 
whelming riches of coal and iron, but of many 
other minerals, including almost all which are of 




economic importance. It is a remarkable fact that 
instead of being limited as in the United States to 
a few favored districts, the coal measures of 
China are found all over the empire and in every 
province. Pure magnetic iron ore is produced 



A General View of China 13 

in the greatest abundance. Some of the mines 
furnish a grade of coal quite equal to the best 
Pennsylvania anthracite. " The mineral wealth 
of Yiin-nan alone is something enormous and al- 
most inexhaustible. . . . Rubies and sapphires, 
garnets and topazes, amethysts and jade, abound 
in the western prefectures ; gold, silver, platinum, 
nickel, copper, tin, lead, zinc, iron, coal, and salt 
also abound. Copper is especially abundant ; its 
ores are of excellent quality and have been 
worked for ages in over one thousand places." 1 
Gold has also been found in paying quantities in 
the sands and alluvial deposits of Mongolia. 
Salt has always been a government monopoly. 
It is produced not only by evaporation from sea- 
water, but from natural deposits, and in Ssu- 
ch'uan from brine brought up from deep wells. 
That this vast potential wealth soon to be made 
available, has been hitherto useless, is chiefly due 
to three causes: profound ignorance of geology 
and of chemistry, invincible superstitions about 
geomancy, feng-shui,* and official exactions espe- 
cially in mining the precious metals. 

China is perhaps the only country in the world Agriculture 
which in the past has been entirely capable of 

1 Little, The Far East, 126. 

2 The belief held by the Chinese in relation to the spirits 
or genii that rule over winds and waters, especially running 
streams and subterranean waters. This doctrine is universal 
and inveterate among the Chinese, and, in great measure, 
prompts their hostility to railroads and telegraphs, since they 
believe that such structures anger the spirits of the air and 
waters, and consequently cause floods and typhoons. 



14 The Uplift of China 

supplying its own wants. Its inhabitants, origi- 
nally pastoral, early became agricultural, and they 
devoted themselves to tillage with an assiduity 
and a success elsewhere unequaled. Their farm- 
ing is frequently characterized rather as garden- 
ing. They are a race of irrigators. They under- 
stand the rotation of crops, and in a crude way 
something of the qualities of soils. Ages ago 
they learned to apply fertilizers with a fidelity and 
a patience without which they would long since 
have been unable to support so great a population. 
The country is unusually fertile. The extensive 
province of Ssti-ch'uan, for example, has a salu- 
brious climate, ranging from the temperate to 
the subtropical. Its soil is rich and most pro- 
ducts yield three or four crops annually. Wheat, 
barley, maize, millet, peas, and beans are culti- 
vated in the north, while rice, sugar, indigo, cot- 
ton, opium, tea, and silk are produced in the south. 
Currency The only currency of China until recently has 
been the brass cash with a square hole for string- 
ing, the size varying from an American five cent 
silver piece up to a diameter of more than an 
inch. These last were for the most part issued 
one hundred or two hundred years ago. It is not 
uncommon to meet with coins in daily use which 
were minted in the T'ang dynasty, perhaps a 
thousand years ago. A single cash represents the 
smallest unit of value, ranging from one-fifteenth 
to one-twentieth of an American cent. Silver, in 



A General View of China 15 

the form of bullion weighing fifty ounces (taels), 
more or less, or in lumps of ten ounces or less, 
still forms the medium of the greater part of 
Chinese exchange, but there is a system of banks, 
by drafts on which money may be transferred 
from place to place. The tael is divided deci- 
mally, as are all Chinese weights and measures, 
with the exception of the catty (equal to one and 
one-third pounds), which as a rule contains 16 
ounces, though the number varies up to 28 ounces. 

The standards of weight are never the same varying 

1 / 1 1 • 1 \ 11 Standards 

in any two places (unless by accident), and the 
same place may have an indefinite number of sil- 
ver or other weights, making the losses in buying 
and selling alike serious and inevitable. Within 
the past few years the various provincial mints 
have been pouring forth so-called " ten cash " 
pieces (worth in reality only from two and one 
half to six of the old cash) at the estimated rate 
of between one and two billions every year. 
The people would only take them on condition 
that they were available for the payment of 
taxes. When at a later period this was for- 
bidden, a financial crisis ensued, prices rose, and 
much distress ensued. The central government 
is now taking over all the provincial mints, but 
there is still no assurance of a uniform copper or 
silver currency for the whole empire. 

In view of its immense resources the question Wealth 
is natural : Is China a rich country ? It contains 



16 The Uplift of China 

almost illimitable possibilities, yet the people 
taken as a whole are poor. So fierce and so con- 
tinuous is the struggle for mere existence that it 
is natural that whatever once for all puts an end 
to it, should be regarded as divine. In many parts 
of China the god of wealth is the most popular 
divinity. In the triad which sums up all that man 
can ask or hope for, wealth, official emoluments, 
and old age, the place of honor is given to the 
most important, without which the others would 
be barren. With the exception of the purchase 
of land, the supply of which is limited, there are 
few safe investments. In every business the 
risks are great. Interest on loans varies from 24 
to 36 per cent, or even more. 
'o^Ftrestr" * n v * ew °* ^ e wealth of China and the poverty 
and Grazing f jt s inhabitants, the question naturally arises, 
what are the causes, and what improvements can 
be inaugurated to ameliorate conditions. The 
wasteful habits of the people, especially in the 
north of China, have resulted in the entire oblit- 
eration of the forests, so that the lack of wood not 
only for fuel but for economic purposes is 
severely felt. Deforestation of large areas has 
also reacted on the climate, causing long periods 
of drought. True to the instinct of economy 
among the people, they have not hesitated to grub 
the roots of plants and grass, as a substitute for 
firewood, and have in this manner denuded the 
soil. The surface of the soil thus deprived of 



Methods 



A General View of China 17 

its natural protection is exposed to the dust- 
storms which occur several times annually. One 
of these dust-storms it has been calculated bears 
out to sea several million tons of fine loess soil. 
By the introduction of scientific agriculture for 
soils and for seeds, the improvement of old 
plants and the introduction of new ones, the en- 
couragement of cattle raising and the afforesta- 
tion of barren mountains, the soil would be pro- 
tected and the climate moderated so that vast 
sections would be reclaimed and China's re- 
sources marvelously increased. 

As has already been suggested, the floods ^"eerlng 
along the Yellow River are frequent and are al- 
ways fraught with widespread destruction. The 
weak attempts of the Chinese to curb the course 
of the rivers have availed nothing. This is due to 
a lack of engineering skill and the dishonest 
peculations of the mandarins supervising the 
work. While the Chinese are pioneers in irriga- 
tion and have extended their system, yet there 
is urgent need for the deepening and broadening 
of the countless artificial waterways, the employ- 
ing of modern engineering methods to remove 
rapids and other obstructions to navigation, and 
the construction of reservoirs to control the flood 
waters of the great rivers. These and other in- 
novations will make a new physical China, put 
an end to famines, and enable the country to sup- 



18 The Uplift of China 

port much more than its present population with 
far less difficulty than is now felt, 
industrial It is not at all improbable that China can 

Progress 

double both her population and her products. At 
any rate, the development of her immense 
natural resources has not as yet seriously been 
touched and " commercial and industrial changes 
are but beginning. With only three thousand 
miles of Chinese railway, 1 experience since 1900 
has shown the most conservative Chinese that 
here is an Aladdin's lamp which they have but 
to rub to produce a wealth beyond the dreams 
of even Oriental avarice. The line from Peking 
to Niu-ch'uang is supposed, during the year 
1905, to have netted the Chinese government 
between $300,000 and $400,000 (silver 2 ) per 
month. Is it strange that Chinese geomancy 
(feng-shui) practically disappears as an inhibi- 
tory force, and that the dreaded earth-dragon 
crawls down a little deeper to be out of the way of 
the rumble of trains and the piercing of mining 
shafts? The new industrial China will involve 
one of the mightiest transformations in the his- 
tory of mankind, — hundreds of millions of sturdy 
agriculturists metamorphosed into manufacturers. 
The great plain of China produces unlimited 

1 This is the railway mileage in operation (1907); while the 
total, — in operation, under construction, and projected, including 
the railroads built under the Manchurian concession, — approxi- 
mates nine thousand miles. 

2 The Mexican silver dollar, used extensively in the Orient, 
and having a vaiue of about fifty cents. 



A General View of China 19 

cotton. Its teeming population are all potential 
agents by which steam and electricity will revo- 
lutionize the empire of the East. The city of 
Hank'ou, on the Yang-tzu River, is probably 
destined to become one of the greatest manu- 
facturing centers of the world. Shanghai is 
rapidly becoming the commercial metropolis of 
the empire, much as is New York that of the 
United States. To control this unprecedented 
development, and to have a share in its poten- 
tialities, is the ambition of every trading 
country." x 

The theater of commercial and political activ- ™l s p"£zj 
ity in this century is the Pacific Ocean. Situated 
in closest proximity to one half of the world's 
population, China is destined to play a leading 
part in the concert of the nations. With her 
two thousand miles of coast-line facing the 
Pacific; with a people equal to if not superior 
to the Anglo-Saxons in industry, economy, and 
perseverance ; with millions of cheap laborers and 
almost unlimited raw material ; with improved 
methods of agriculture and the introduction of 
modern machinery in mining and manufactur- 
ing; with the expansion of navigation and the 
extension of roads and railroads ; with the estab- 
lishment of a staple monetary system and com- 
mercial confidence ; with the peopling and de- 
velopment of the vast hinterland of Manchuria, 

1 The Outlook, March 24, 1906, page 704. 



20 The Uplift of China 

Mongolia, Tibet, and Turkestan, is it not reason- 
able to suppose that when the strongest race in 
the Orient is awakened, the mastery of the 
Pacific commercially and politically will be in 
the hands of the Chinese? 
opportunity China has Ions: been a commercial field coveted 

of Christianity ° 

by great powers. The greed of Western nations 
has by degrees thrust open her doors. China is 
open! But who shall enter, — Occidental civili- 
zation with her vices and materialism? — or the 
Church with her message of life and salvation? 
In this strategic period of transformation, shall 
not Christianity outstrip all other competitors in 
the uplift of China? 



A General View of China 21 

SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THE QUESTIONS, 

Most of these questions are thought questions. That 
is, they require for their answers some original think- 
ing. This form of question has been chosen for in- 
sertion in the text-book (1) because questions which 
constitute a mere memory test of the facts of the text 
can easily be constructed by any leader or member who 
makes an outline of the principal facts, and (2) be- 
cause mere memory questions, although they have 
their uses, yield far less than thought questions either 
in mental development or in permanent impression. 
In some cases complete answers will be found in the 
text-book; usually statements that will serve as a basis 
for inference; but u few questions appeal solely to the 
general knowledge and common sense of the student. 
The greatest sources of inspiration and growth will be, 
not what the text-book adds to the student, but what 
the student adds to the text-book; the former is only 
a means to the latter. 

In using these questions, therefore, let the leader 
first gather from the chapter or from previous chapters 
all that relates to the subject. It will be found profit- 
able to jot down this material so that it will be all 
under the eye at once; then think, using freely all the 
knowledge, mental power, and reference books avail- 
able. For the sake of definiteness, conclusions should 
be written out. It is not supposed that the average 
leader will be able to answer all these questions satis- 
factorily; otherwise, there would be little left for the 
class session. The main purpose of the session is to 
compare imperfect results and arrive at greatei ~3>m- 
pleteness by comparison and discussion. 

It is not supposed that the entire list of questions 
will be used in any one case, especially when the ses- 
sions last only an hour. The length of the session, the 



22 The Uplift of China 

maturity of the class, and the taste of the leade/ will all 
influence the selection that will be mace. In many 
cases the greatest value of these questions will be to 
suggest others that will be better. Those marked * 
require more mature thought and should be made the 
basis of discussion. 

There has been no attempt to follow the order of 
paragraphs in the text-book in more than a general 
way. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER I 

Aim : In View of her Resources and Probable 
Future, to Determine the Importance of China's 
Evangelization 

I. The Natural Resources of China. 

I. If you had to live in Asia, in what zone would 

you choose to live? 
% In which of the five zones of the earth are the 
present world powers located? 

3. Has location anything to do with their prom- 
inence ? 

4. How does the latitude of China compare with 
that of the United States? 

5. Could you choose in Asia a more favorable 
latitude than China possesses? 

6. What is the advantage, especially in Asia, of 
having a position on the seacoast? 

7. Of what advantage is it for a country to ex- 
tend over several degrees of latitude? 

8. Compare the area and population of Ssu-ch'uan 
province with that of France. 

9. Compare the area and population of Shan- 
tung province with that of Illinois. 

TO. Compare the area and population of the eigh- 
teen provinces with that of the United States. 



A General View of China 23 

11. Construct a chart that shall present the vast- 
ness of the population of China in the most 
striking way possible. 

12. How does the coast-line of China compare 
with that of the United States. (Consult 
map.) 

13. What signs of appreciation of the value of 
China's harbors have been shown by European 
powers ? 

14. What other waterways in the world compare 
in navigability with the Yang-tzu? 

15. How do these compare in the extent of popu- 
lation which they serve? 

16. For climatic reasons would you care to live 
farther north in Asia than the northern bound- 
ary of China? 

'.J. Would you care to live farther south than the 

southern boundary? 
[8. What quality of soil is usually found in great 

river basins ? 

19. What other soil in China is of special fertility? 

20. How do the mineral deposits of China com- 
pare with those of any other country you 
know ? 

II. Hindrances to Economic Progre** that Aay be 
Removed. 

1. Why does not the mere possession of such a 
favorable location and such immense resources 
make China at present a rich country? 

2. In what ways will the introduction of rail- 
roads affect the wealth of the country? 

3. Which population may safely become more 
dense, an agricultural or a manufacturing ooo- 
ulatlon ? 



24 The Uplift of China 

4. What will be the effect on China of the intro- 
duction of manufactures? 
5.* Examine carefully Chapter I to see what 

recommendations you should make if you were 

appointed forestry commissioner of China. 
6.* What do you think could be accomplished by 

energetic measures along this line? 
7 * What should you recommend if you were 

commissioner of irrigation? 
8.* What should you hope to accomplish by this? 
9.* What effect would the evangelization of China 

have upon her economic condition? 
t 

III. China's Probable Future. 

1. How does China rank among the nations of 
the earth in potential resources? 

2. Which will probably grow more rapidly in the 
next fifty years, the numbers of the population 
of the United States, or the general intelligence 
of the population of China? 

3. Which population will be the more valuable 
economically at the end of that time? 

4. What effect will the development of China's 
natural resources have upon the standard of 
living and general intelligence of the people? 

5. How will China rank among the nations of 
the earth when this material development is 
realized? 

6. Is this development likely to be long delayed? 
7.* What will be China's influence in the world if 

she remain unevangelized ? 
8. What is the greatest problem of the twentieth 
century before the Church? 



A General View of China 25 

References 1 for Advanced Study — Chapter I 

I. Agriculture. 

Ball: Things Chinese, 13-26. 

Bard: Chinese Life in Town and Country, XVII. 

Beach : Dawn on the Hills of Tang, 10. 

Denby: China and Her People, Vol. I, X. 

Douglas : History of China, VI. 

Gorst: China, VII. 

Gray: China, XXIII, XXIV. 

II. Mineral Resources. 

Ball : Things Chinese, 307-312. 

Bard: Chinese Life in Town and Country, 157, 158. 

Beach : Dawn on the Hills of Tang, 10. 

Colquhoun: China in Transformation, 58-68. 

Gorst: China, II. 

Jernigan: China in Law and Commerce, 330, 337, 

341, 356, 387, 391, 392. 

Parker: China, 153-155. 

Keltie: Statesman's Year-Book (1906) 768. 

III. Climate. 

Ball : Things Chinese, 173-177. 
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 9, 10. 
Brown: New Forces in Old China, 18, 84. 
Nevius : China and the Chinese, 28, 29. 

IV. Commerce. 

Brown: New Forces in Old China, 40, 101, 109, 117, 
121, 126, 136, 305. 

Colquhoun : China in Transformation, VI. 
Denby : China and Her People, Vol. 2, II, III, IV. 

1 The references at the end of each chapter have been selected 
as widely as possible to meet the needs of all classes. Those 
recommended in the " Suggestions to Leaders for the Class 
Session" are largely chosen from the books in the Special Reference 
Library on China. 



26 The Uplift of China 

Parker: China, VII. 

Wildman : China's Open Door, XL 

V. The Future of China. 

Brown : New Forces in Old China, VIII, IX, XIII. 

Denby: China and Her People, Vol. 2, XVI, XVII. 

Millard: The New Far East, XV, XVI, XVII. 

Norman: The Peoples and Policies of the Far 

East, XVIII, XX. 

Weale: The Reshaping of the Far East, Vol. 2 

XXXV. 



A GREAT RACE WITH A GREAT 
INHERITANCE 



21 



When Moses led the Israelites through tht wilderness, 
Chinese laws and literature and Chinese religious 
knowledge excelled that of Egypt. A hundred years 
before the north wind rippled over the harp of David, 
Wung Wang, an emperor of China, composed classics 
which are committed to memory at this day by every 
advanced scholar of the empire. While Homer was 
composing and singing the Iliad, China's blind min- 
strels were celebrating her ancient heroes, whose tombs 
had already been with them through nearly thirteen 
centuries. Her literature was fully developed before 
England was invaded by the Norman conquerors. The 
Chinese invented firearms as early as the reign of Eng- 
land's first Edward, and the art of printing five hundred 
years before Caxton was born. They made paper A. D. 
150, and gunpowder about the commencement of the 
Christian era. A thousand years ago the forefathers of 
the present Chinese sold silks to the Romans, and 
dressed in these fabrics when the inhabitants of the 
British Isles wore coats of blue paint and fished in 
willow canoes. Her great wall was built two hundred 
and twenty years before Christ was born at Bethlehem, 
and contains material enough to build a wall five or six 
feet high around the globe. 

— /. T Gracey. 



I 



II 



A GREAT RACE WITH A GREAT 
INHERITANCE 

T is a popular Chinese proverb that antiquity Family'** 
and modern times are alike, and that All- 
under-Heaven (China) are one family, — a saying 
which may be regarded as an epitome of her his- 
tory. " No other nation," says one of the most 
recent writers upon China, " with which the world 
is acquainted has been so constantly true to itself ; 
no other nation has preserved its type so unal- 
tered; no other nation has developed a civiliza- 
tion so completely independent of any extraneous 
influences ; no other nation has elaborated its 
own ideals in such absolute segregation from 
alien thought; no other nation has preserved the 
long stream of its literature so entirely free from 
foreign affluents; no other nation has ever 
reached a moral and national elevation compara- 
tively so high above the heads of contemporary 
states." * 

Chinese historians begin their legendary his- HiJfory ' 
tory at a period about thirty centuries before the 
Christian era, but where it ends and where solid 

1 Brinkley, Oriental Series : Japan and China. 
29 



30 The Uplift of China 

footing begins is in the minds of Western schol- 
ars quite unsettled, some deciding upon 2300 to 
2000 years B. C, others selecting the beginning 
of the Chou dynasty, 11 22 B. C, and still others a 
later date. The important fact is that, thirty- 
five, forty, or perhaps even forty-five centuries 
ago, the institutions of the Chinese people, their 
language, arts, government, and religion, had be- 
gun to develop on lines from which no depar- 
ture has ever been made, 
influence of Confucius was born in the Chou dynasty, B. C. 

Confucius J J 

551, and with his face set toward the even then 
immeasurable past, lamented the good old times 
of Yao and Shun, from fifteen hundred to two 
thousand years before him, and the Chinese peo- 
ple, following his lead, have continued lamenting 
them down to the present time. 
a Continuous p or a student of the outline of China's develop- 
ment to burden his memory with the names of 
monarchs and the dates of dynasties is wholly 
unnecessary. But it is essential to gain a dis- 
tinct impression of the fact that, from mythical, 
semi-mythical, semi-historical, and historical 
times, the evolution of China and the Chinese 
has been continuous and uninterrupted. 
T Em F eroJ Aside from her great sages, the name which 
perhaps most Occidentals are disposed to place 
first in importance is that of Shih Huang- ti, the 
self-styled First Emperor, who not only built 
the Great Wall, abolished feudalism, and unified 



A Great Race and Inheritance 31 

the empire, but out of vanity ordered the com- 
plete destruction of most of the literature of 
China, the more important parts of which were 
afterward recovered. Dr. Williams terms him 
" the Napoleon of China — one of those extra- 
ordinary men who turn the course of events and 
give an impress to subsequent ages," but Chinese 
historians detest his name and his acts. 

The Han dynasty (B. C. 202-A. D. 221) is Han Dynasty 
of special interest because the northern Chinese 
still style themselves " Sons of Han," because 
in it the competitive system of examinations had 
its rise, and because its emperors " developed 
literature, commerce, arts, and good government 
to a degree unknown before anywhere in Asia." 

The T'ang dynasty (618-907) marks another J h J a ^ ang 
of the high-water periods of Chinese history, 
when China " was probably the most civilized 
country on earth," an era of schools and liter- 
ary examinations, of the cultivation of poetry, 
of the incorporation of the inhabitants of the 
southern coast (who still call themselves ' Sons 
of T'ang') into the main body of the people, 
and of the extension of the empire to the banks 
of the Caspian Sea. 

In the Sung dynasty (960-1127) lived the Sung Dynasty 
famous historian Ssu-ma Kuang, a great socialist 
minister of state named Wang An-shih (who 
anticipated many modern communistic theories 
and incidentally nearly ruined the empire), and 



32 The Uplift of China 

Chu Hsi, the acute and profound commentator 
on the classics, whose interpretations have con- 
tinued the standard of orthodoxy down to the 
present time. 
Yuan^and l n the Yuan, the first foreign (Mongol) 
Dynasties dynasty (1280-1368), under the great Kublai 
Khan, Marco Polo made his memorable visit to 
Cathay. The Mongol dynasty was short-lived, 
and was replaced by the Chinese Ming dynasty 
(1368-1644), during which time European ships 
first visited Chinese waters, the empire being at 
last face to face with the West. 
e? n n ast u From 1644 t0 tne present time China has been 
ruled by a race of Manchus, invited in to assist 
one of the parties in internal disputes and judi- 
ciously deciding to remain and keep the empire 
for themselves. They have styled theirs the 
Great Pure, or Ta Ch'ing dynasty. 
An unvarying The apparent monotony of Chinese history is 
mainly due to the fact that similar causes have 
always produced, with minor variations, similar 
results. The founders of dynasties were neces- 
sarily men of action and of force, who concen- 
trated their power, returned to the old ways, 
abolished abuses, gradually tranquilizing and uni- 
fying the empire. After a certain (or rather 
an uncertain) period the original impulse, under 
degenerate descendants, was exhausted, abuses 
again multiplied, rebellions increased, and the 
decree of Heaven was held to have been lost. 



A Great Race and Inheritance 33 

Much paralyzing disorder ensuing, a new- 
dynasty gradually got itself established, to repeat 
after a few score or a few hundred years the 
same process. 

" The government of China is that of an abso- Government 
lute, despotic monarchy. The emperor rules by 
virtue of a divine right derived direct from 
Heaven, and he is styled ' The Son of Heaven/ 
This divine right he retains as long as he rules 
in conformity with the decrees of Heaven. When 
the dynasty falls into decay by the vices of its 
rulers, Heaven raises up another who, by force 
of arms, the virtue of bravery, and fitness for 
the post, wrests the scepter from the enfeebled 
grasp of him who is unfit to retain it any longer. 
This idea has exerted a beneficial effect on the 
sovereigns of China, who feel that on the one 
hand they are dependent upon high Heaven for 
the retention of their throne, and who humbly 
and publicly confess their shortcomings in times 
of floods and drought. On the other hand, 
though there is no House of Commons to exer- 
cise a check on the unrestrained power of the 
sovereign, there is the general public opinion of 
the people, who, being educated in the principles 
that underlie all true government, are ready to 
apply them to their rulers when they forget, or 
act grossly in opposition to, them. To see the 
system of patriarchal government carried out in 
its entirety, one must come to China. The em- 



34 The Uplift of China 

peror stands in loco parentis to the common peo- 
ple, and his officers occupy a similar position. 
The principles which have formed the frame- 
work of government for millenniums among these 
ancient, stable, and peace-loving people, may be 
found in a study of the rule of the ancient kings, 
Yao and Shun, and their successors, and in the 
precepts inculcated by Confucius and Mencius." * 
The Teaching Prominent among: the inheritances from 

of the Sages ° 

China's past must be placed the teaching of her 
sages. This should be considered as one of the 
largest gifts ever bestowed by the Father of 
Lights upon any race of the children of men. 
The defects and the errors of this teaching are 
not to be blinked, but these do not alter the fact 
that a Power that makes for righteousness is 
recognized, that a lofty ideal of virtue is per- 
petually held up, and that wrong-doing is threat- 
ened with punishment. 
A C< of C »?orJa ^ conception of moral order and a theory of 
Order human government singularly adapted to the 
people is one of the priceless assets of the Chinese 
which they have received from antiquity. The 
principles which underlie the Chinese system may 
be said to be in China undisputed, and indeed 
indisputable. Even the forms of political ad- 
ministration have their roots in the earliest of 
the Chinese classics. The numerous wars and 
rebellions of Chinese history are to be regarded, 

1 Ball: Things Chinese, 319. 



A Great Race and Inheritance 35 

not as a protest against the ideals, but against 
the failure to carry them into execution. It was 
not the system which was thought to be at fault, 
but the men who had perverted it. 

The only aristocracy in China has been the f d s u t ^ ional 
student class, and yet under their democratic 
system of education examinations have been open 
to men of every rank. Official position being 
the reward of success, the system has stimulated 
general participation and has undoubtedly ele- 
vated the standard of education. It has also 
attracted a superior class to public office, because 
only men of ability could qualify. As the classics 
studied have moral worth, they have improved 
the character of the people. Although not more 
than one in fifty has obtained official position, 
the unsuccessful have been influential in mold- 
ing and controlling public opinion and have done 
much to maintain a stable, united, and peaceful 
China. 

One of the greatest virtues among the Chinese FiIial piet y 
is filial piety, while disobedience is one of the 
greatest crimes. From early childhood they are 
taught to obey their parents. While the duties 
of children to parents are exacting, they have 
nurtured a respect for parentage that children 
of the West would do well to emulate. The 
system also insists upon the proper care of the 
body, as it is received in perfect form from the 
parents. It has imposed upon the nation a sense 



36 The Uplift of China 

of obedience and subordination that has pre- 
vented revolt and anarchy. That filial piety has 
been in China a mighty unifying force, and that 
the days of the Chinese people have indeed been 
long in the land that the Lord has given them, 
are indisputable facts. 

Abse ca e ste There is no caste in China and very little caste 
feeling. It is said that one of the T'ang dynasty 
emperors tried to introduce caste into China and 
failed. Any one, with few minor exceptions, 
may aspire to rise and many constantly do so, 
after starting from the humblest beginnings. A 
native writer thus describes the gradations in 
society : 

G in a |ociety " First the scholar: because mind is superior 
to wealth, and it is the intellect that distinguishes 
man above the lower orders of beings, and en- 
ables him to provide food and raiment and shelter 
for himself and for other creatures. Second, the 
farmer: because the mind cannot act without the 
body, and the body cannot exist without food ; 
so that farming is essential to the existence of 
man, especially in civilized society. Third, the 
mechanic: because, next to food, shelter is a 
necessity, and the man who builds a house comes 
next in honor to the man who provides food. 
Fourth, the tradesman: because, as society in- 
creases and its wants are multiplied, men to carry 
on exchange and barter become a necessity, and 
so the merchant comes into existence. His oc- 



A Great Race and Inheritance 37 

cupation — shaving both sides, the producer and 
consumer — tempts him to act dishonestly; hence 
his low grade. Fifth, the soldier stands last 
and lowest in the list, because his business is to 
destroy and not to build up society. He con- 
sumes what others produce, but produces nothing 
himself that can benefit mankind- He is, per- 
haps, a necessary evil." x 

A complex group of race traits form an im- Race Traits 
portant part of the inheritance of the Chinese 
people, a few of which are here selected, not of 
course as a complete enumeration, but merely as 
illustrations. 

The Chinese are a hearty people, fitted for any y^*?" 1 
climate from the subarctic to the torrid zones. 
The average Chinese birth-rate is unknown, but 
it may be doubted whether it is elsewhere ex- 
ceeded. Infant mortality is enormously high, 
floods, famine, and pestilence annually destroy 
great numbers of adults, yet in a few years the 
waste appears to be repaired. Aged people, who 
everywhere abound, may often be seen engaged 
in heavy manual labor, occasionally working as 
masons and carpenters, and frequently in the 
fields, when past eighty years. Every dispensary 
and hospital in China contains records of a wide 
range of diseases and surgical cases often long 
neglected and chronic. Yet under skilful treat- 
ment even these frequently make the most sur- 

1 Quoted by Beach, Dawn on the Hills of Tang, 45, 46. 



38 The Uplift of China 

prising recoveries. Almost all Chinese exhibit 
wonderful endurance of physical pain, constantly 
submitting to surgical operations without anes- 
thetics and without wincing. As a people the 
Chinese have constitutions of singular flexibility 
and toughness, and upon occasion can bear hun- 
ger, thirst, cold, heat, and exposure, perhaps 
(with the exception of the Japanese), to a greater 
degree than any other race. From a physical 
point of view, there is no group of mankind now 
in existence, if indeed there ever has been any, 
better qualified to illustrate the survival of the 
fittest, than the Chinese. 
Adaptiveness While the Chinese are not an inventive race, 
they possess a phenomenal capacity for adapta- 
tion to their environment. Having only the rudi- 
ments of natural science, they ages ago empiric 
cally made discoveries of the latent capacities of 
earth, air, and sea. Gunpowder, 1 the mariners' 
compass, and the art of printing from blocks 
were familiar to the Chinese ages before they 
were known in the West. Thorough fertiliza- 
tion of the land, the practise of terracing hills 
and cultivation of the slopes, systematic and gen- 
eral irrigation, rotation of crops, the use of 
leguminous plants as food and their cultivation 
for resting the soil, the care of the silkworm and 
the weaving of silk, the carving of wood and of 

1 The compounding of gunpowder first by the Chinese is dis- 
puted by some writers. 



A Great Race and Inheritance 39 

ivory, the manufacture of lacquer, as well as a 
host of other industries, are all instances of this 
talent, and the list might be indefinitely extended. 
Xo people are more fertile in resource, more skil- 
ful in the application of mind to problems of 
matter, but when steam and electricity become 
universally available throughout the empire, the 
present high efficiency of the Chinese will be 
multiplied many fold. 

This wonderful gift is exhibited on a vast scale j£he Talent 
in the perpetuation of the Chinese race from pre- continuance 
historic times till now, without check from with- 
out, without essential decay from within. In 
classical times, as is shown by many warnings in 
ancient books, there was the greatest danger that 
strong drink would be their ruin, but by degrees 
that peril was surmounted. Within the past two 
centuries opium, by far the most deadly evil in 
their long history, has even more seriously 
threatened to transform the Chinese, as one of 
their leading statesmen expressed it, " into satyrs 
and devils." * In the year 1729 a drastic imperial 
edict was issued against the use of this poisonous 
drug, but the growing foreign commercial in- 
terest in its importation rendered the decree a 
dead letter. The determined effort of Commis- 
sioner Lin in 1839 to drive opium out of China, 
brought on war. In 1906, after a lapse of 177 
years, the imperial prohibition is renewed, and an 

, 1 Chang Chih Tung: China's Only Hope, 73. 



40 The Uplift of China 

apparently resolute effort is set on foot to put a 
stop to the smoking of opium and probably also to 
the cultivation of the poppy plant, — although the 
latter is still in the future tense. The Chinese, as 
we have seen, have twice * been overrun by other 
races, and in each instance by sheer superiority 
have eliminated or absorbed their conquerors, 
and the ancient regime has gone on essentially 
undisturbed. Were this test to be indefinitely 
repeated, the result would almost certainly be 
the same. By overwhelming physical power the 
Chinese might indeed be ' conquered,' but with- 
out their help China could never be administered. 
For the compulsory assimilation of the Chinese 
people to other standards than their own, even 
geologic epochs would not suffice. 
ofNerves -f n tn ^ s a & e °f steam and electricity, Western 
civilization has developed a conspicuous nervous 
system. The twirling pencil, the twitching fin- 
gers, and anxious face, are daily reminders of 
taut nerves. The Occidental composure is easily 
shattered by delay and disappointment, while to 
the Chinese it matters not how long he is required 
to remain in one position; and he will stick 
steadily to his work from morning till night, 
plodding faithfully at the most monotonous task. 
Even the children display a capacity for keeping 
quiet that would drive a Western child insane. 

1 By Genghis Khan in the thirteenth century and by the 
Manchus in the seventeenth. 



A Great Race and Inheritance 41 

The Chinese cannot understand why an Occi- 
dental should participate in athletics without pay. 
Taking exercise is an unknown art among them. 
They are not subject to worries and anxieties. 
They have the ability to accept lawsuits, famine, 
and disaster calmly. Whatever the future im- 
pact of the Chinese with the Occidental, it is not 
unreasonable to assume that in the twentieth cen- 
tury in the race for world supremacy the most 
enduring will be the tireless and phlegmatic 
Chinese. 

If the Chinese have anv talent at all, they have industry and 

' J Economy 

and have always had a talent for work. If the 
physical empire which they have inherited be it- 
self regarded as a talent, by laborious, patient, 
and intelligent development of their inheritance, 
they may be said to have gained ten other 
talents. They rise early and toil late. Farmers 
in particular toil ceaselessly. Artificers of all 
kinds ply their trades, not merely from dawn 
till dark, but often far into the night. In 
the early hours, long before daybreak, may be 
heard the dull thud of the tin-foil beaters of Can- 
ton or that of the rice hullers of Fu-chien. The 
stone-cutters of Chiang-hsi crawl up the steep 
mountain sides before sunrise, have their food 
sent up in buckets, themselves returning after 
sunset, while all day long through fog and even 
in the drizzling rain may be heard the steady click 
of their chisels. Merchants great and small ex- 



42 The Uplift of China 

h'bit the same talent for toil, and yet more those 
peripatetic dealers, who with a carrying-pole on 
their shoulder, or a pack on their backs, transport 
bulky commodities to great distances, and for the 
most trifling profits. With the exception of the 
period just following the New Year, the holidays 
are infrequent. 

fbrContent ^e cheerful industry of the Chinese has al- 
ways attracted the admiring attention of the dis- 
cerning observer. The Chinese themselves under- 
stand far better than any outside critics can do 
the imperfections of the system under which they 
live, but they are profoundly aware that many of 
them are inevitable, and they are convinced that 
it is better to bear the ills they have than to fly to 
others that they know too well. Yet in despair 
and especially for revenge they will on very slight 
provocation commit suicide. Chinese content- 
edness is not at all inconsistent with an idealism 
which finds expression in the secret sects and 
societies. Their capacity for work, for adapta- 
tion, and for content, make the Chinese in every 
land where they have settled, excellent immi- 
grants. Without their assistance, it is difficult to 
see what is to be done to develop the tropics. 
With their assistance, in due time the whole 
earth may be subdued. 

orTJ/Sitfon ^he ent ^ re civilization of China is an illustra- 
tion of this native gift. Perhaps no form of 
human government was ever more adroitly con- 



A Great Race and Inheritance 43 

trived to combine stability with flexibility, ap- 
parent absolutism and essential democracy. That 
the genius of the Chinese is fully equal to reshap- 
ing their institutions to accommodate modern 
needs, as a schooner may be fitted with auxiliary 
steam attachments, may be taken as certain, if 
only there were an adequate supply of the right 
kind of men. Scholars readily combine in solid 
phalanx against officials who invade their rights, 
while merchants by suspending all traffic, can 
force the hand of oppressive mandarins in resist- 
ing illegal exactions. The mercantile and trade 
guilds of China resemble those of Europe in the 
Middle Ages, but with a cohesion reminding one 
of a chemical union, against the action of which 
it is impossible to protest. Boats, carts, sedan- 
chairs, and other modes of transportation are 
all managed by guilds which must always be 
reckoned with. All China is honeycombed with 
secret societies, political, semipolitical, and re- 
ligious, all forbidden by the government, and fre- 
quently attacked with fury by the officials and 
dispersed. But while readily yielding to force, 
like mists on the mountain top, the constituent 
parts separate only to drift together elsewhere, 
perhaps under variant names and forms. Indi- 
vidual and class selfishness, together with that 
ingrained suspicion with which the Chinese, in 
common with other Orientals, regard one 



44 The Uplift of China 

another, serve as a check upon what would other- 
wise be an inordinate development of this talent, 
intellectual But perhaps it is in intellectual tasks that the 

Endurance . 

industry of the Chinese is most impressive. To 
commit to memory the works called classical is 
an alpine labor, but this is merely a beginning. 
On the old plan of examination essays, every 
scholar's mind (literally i abdomen ') must be a 
warehouse of models of literature from which, 
according to arbitrary rules in competition with 
hundreds and perhaps thousands of others, he 
might make selections in the weaving of his own 
thesis or poem. Indefinite repetition of such 
examinations under conditions involving physical 
and intellectual exhaustion, with an utmost 
chance of success of scarcely two in a hundred, 
might qualify the successful contestant to be- 
come a candidate for some government appoint- 
ment — when there should be a vacancy. Per- 
haps, after all, no men in China are so hard- 
worked as the officials, who not infrequently 
break down under the strain. In all these and in 
many other ways the Chinese display a wonderful 
talent for work. 
intefiectiS With a theory of the universe which explains 

and Moral the relation between heaven, earth, and man as 

Forces ' 

one of moral order, the Chinese have a profound 
respect for law, for reason, and for those prin- 
ciples of decorum and ceremony which are the 
outward expression of an inner fact. Once con- 



A Great Race and Inheritance 45 

vinced that anything is according to reason, they 
accept it as a part of the necessary system of 
things. Military force has always been recog- 
nized as necessary, but as a necessary evil. Mili- 
tary officers have always been far outranked by 
civil officers, and it is only now, that the Western 
civilization of force is becoming influential, that 
these two branches of the State's service are to 
be put on an equality. Even the mere symbols 
of thought are regarded with the greatest respect. 
The gathering up and burning of written or 
printed paper (for which special furnaces are 
provided) is an act of merit. To study, to learn, 
is considered as at once the highest duty and the 
greatest privilege. The Chinese have always de- 
pended upon education as the true bulwark of 
society, and of the State. Perhaps into no people 
known to history have the principles of social 
and moral order been more uniformly and more 
thoroughly instilled. Government, law, and all 
their emblems are regarded with what appears 
to a Westerner an almost superstitious vener- 
ation, but as a result, when ruled upon lines to 
which they are accustomed, the Chinese are 
probably the most easily governed people in the 
world. 

For their own immeasurable past the Chinese J^ e e v f> r a e s n t ce fot 
entertain the loftiest admiration. The universal 
memorizing of the most ancient classics, the all- 
pervading theatricals for which they have a pas- 



46 The Uplift of China 

sion, and the tea-shop, the peripatetic story-teller, 
the popular historical novel, all unite to render 
the period of say two millenniums ago, quite as 
real as the present, and of far more dignity, not 
to say of more importance. Yao and Shun, who 
stand at the outermost horizon of Chinese his- 
tory, figure to-day in conversation, in examina- 
tion essays, in editorials of the press, in antitheti- 
cal couplets pasted on the doorways of palace or 
of hovel, as objective and influential realities. 
In a sense every Chinese may be regarded as a 
condensed epitome of the reigns of say 246 em- 
perors in 26 dynasties. 
Conservatism He is not easily swerved from his uniform 
course, because from the beginning this has been 
the way of All-under-Heaven. Without this 
strong bond of conservatism China would like 
other empires have long since fallen in pieces. 
With it, the face of all the people being turned 
to the past, she has been practically immovable. 
But now, under new conditions, impelled by fresh 
impulses, we behold the wonderful spectacle of 
the most ancient and the most populous of em- 
pires, with one hand clinging to that mighty past, 
while with the other groping for a perhaps still 
more mighty future. With this galaxy of race 
traits, not to speak of many others, the Chinese 
may be said to be outfitted for the future as no 
other now is, or perhaps ever has been. 



A Great Race and Inheritance 47 

Here then is the most numerous, most homo- a Race to be 

' Reckoned 

geneous, most peaceful, and most enduring race With 
of all time. Its record antecedes the pyramids of 
Egypt. The reign of the Emperor Yu antedates 
the period of Moses eight centuries, and Con- 
fucius preceded Christ more than five hundred 
years. The history of Greece and Rome is mod- 
ern compared with China. Of the peoples of 
ancient history, the Jews and Chinese alone sur- 
vive, but the Jews have lost their country, lan- 
guage, and nationality, while to the Chinese these 
remain. Subjugated by Genghis Khan in the 
thirteenth century and by the Manchus in the 
seventeenth, they have maintained their language, 
government, religion, and customs, and absorbed 
their conquerors. To the world's progress they 
have contributed their share. Books were pro- 
duced in large numbers in China one thousand 
years before Gutenberg was born. The mariners' 
compass, forerunner of steam and electricity, was 
used by the Chinese several centuries before it 
was used in the West. Gunpowder, which has 
revolutionized all military science, was first com- 
pounded by the Chinese, and they were pioneers 
in the manufacture of porcelain and silk. The 
Great Wall and the Grand Canal are striking 
evidences of the engineering skill and enterprise 
of the people. All these with itd language, liter- 
ature, philosophy, and powerful race traits, mark 
the Chinese as one of the most gi-fted divisions 



48 The Uplift of China 

of the human family. When it is remembered 
that all of these achievements were consummated, 
isolated by ocean, mountains, deserts, and their 
own exclusiveness, the conclusion cannot be 
avoided that this is a great race with a great in- 
heritance worthy of the consecrated energies of 
the most capable manhood and womanhood of 
the Church. To capture this race for Christ 
means the early conquest of the whole world- 



QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER II 

Aim . To Realize the Importance of Winning thf 
Chinese Race for Christ 

I. Qualities of the Race Indicated by its Wonderful 
Past. 

I* What physical causes have helped to preserve 
China in such isolation? 

2. Compare the Chinese Empire in age with the 
Roman Empire, the Papacy, the English Mon- 
archy, and the United States Government. 

3. Compare the principles of governmental re- 
straint in China with those of the other great 
empires before Christ. 

4. What trace is left of those other empires at 
present? 

5. In the days of Paul, which was the more 
promising race, the Chinese or our Anglo- 
Saxon ancestors? 

6.* Compare the amount that each race has re- 
ceived, from without, since that time. 



A Great Race and Inheritance 49 

7. How should you feel toward principles of gov- 
ernment that had preserved your country while 
others decayed? 

8.* What are some of the advantages and w 7 hat 
some of the disadvantages of having a golden 
age so far in the past? 

9. In what respects did the attitude of Confucius 
and Mencius differ from that of the Hebrew 
prophets ? 
TO.* Name all of the reasons you can why the 
Chinese system of government has endured so 
long. 

11. How has filial piety affected the stability of 
the government of China? 

12. In what ways has the educational system been a 
bulwark to the government? 

13.* What can you infer from a comparison of the 
Chinese ranking of occupations with that of the 
order of castes in India? 

14. On the basis of their past history, how would 
you rank the Chinese among the races? 

II. The Present Equipment of the Race and Its Prob- 
able Future. 

15. What physical hindrances has the race had to 
contend with? 

16. What will be the effect on the Chinese of im- 
proved sanitation and food supply? 

17. Why are the Chinese desired as laborers, but 
unpopular as immigrants? 

18. What sort of troops do you think the Chinese 
would make? 

19* What are the advantages and what the dis- 
advantages of the absence of nerves? 
!0. How will the Chinese be fitted to enter into 



50 The Uplift of China 

industrial competition when they possess ma- 
chinery ? 
21. Why do we speak of a yellow peril, but not of 

a brown peril or a black peril? 
22.* What do you understand by the yellow peril? 
23* Compare the strong and weak points of the 

Chinese with those of the Anglo-Saxon. 
24.* How will the races rank when they have freely 

borrowed from each other? 
25.* What traits that they lack do you think the 

Chinese might acquire? 
26* What principles should you keep in mind in 

introducing changes into China? 

27. In view of the natural resources of the country 
and traits of the race, what is the probable 
future of China? 

28. How do you rank China among the mission 
fields of the earth? 

References for Advanced Study. — Chapter II 

I. History. 

Ball : Things Chinese, 326-345. 

Gorst : China, IV. 

Kidd: China, Section II. 

Parker: China, II. 

Williams: A History of China, I, 

II. Physical Powers of People. 

Beach: Dawn on the Hills of Tang, 35. 
Henry: The Cross and the Dragon, 37-40. 
Smith : Chinese Characteristics, III, XI, XVI. 
Williams: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I, 41. 



A Great Race and Inheritance 51 

III. Mental Powers of People. 

Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 36-39. 
Nevius: China and the Chinese, 279-282. 
Smith : Village Life in China, 102, 103. 

IV. Literature. 

Ball : Things Chinese, 399-410. 

Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 15-23. 

Douglas : History of China, XIX. 

Williams : The Middle Kingdom, Vol. 1, XI, XII. 

V. Government. 

Ball: Things Chinese, 318-322. 
Bard : Chinese Life in Town and Country, XII. 
Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 30, 31. 
Colquhoun : China in Transformation, XI. 
Giles : China and the Chinese, III. 
Holcombe : The Real Chinaman, II, X. 
Nevius: China and the Chinese, V. 



THE DEFECTS OF THE SOCIAL 
SYSTEM 



But in speaking of the home, it must not be forgotten 
that it includes something more than the devotion of 
child to parent. There is a duty of parent to child, and in 
addition to this, there is an obligation existing between 
brothers and sisters. The Chinese home is built upon 
a philosophy which to us seems one-sided, much being 
said about the child's duty to the parent, and the younger 
brothers' duty to the eldest, but less about the mutuality 
of domestic relations. Do not the parents owe some- 
thing to the child? The child enters life without his 
own volition; when he becomes conscious of existence, 
he finds himself environed by others, and certain rela- 
tions fastened upon him. He is taught to address one 
person as father, another person as mother, a third as 
brother, and a fourth as sister. As he does not select 
the parent whom he is to revere, neither does he de- 
termine whether he shall be the elder brother or the 
younger, or even how many brothers and sisters are to 
surround him. Can it be that thus brought into the 
world, he is under greater obligation to his parents than 
his parents are to him? 

— WiUiam Jennings Bryan. 

Woman is made to serve in China, and the bondage 
is often a long and bitter one : a life of servitude to her 
parents; a life of submission to her parents-in-law at 
marriage; and the looking forward to a life of bondage 
to her husband in the next world ; for she belongs to the 
same husband there, and is not allowed, by the senti- 
ment of the people, to be properly married to another 
after his death. 

— /. Dyer Ball. 



Ill 



THE DEFECTS OF THE SOCIAL 
SYSTEM 

T N the preceding chapter has been presented 
A the bright side of Chinese character. Mani- 
festly it is a race with tremendous possibilities. 
Lacking some of the leading traits of the Anglo- 
Saxon, it has others which go far to compensate 
it, and which under conditions by no means im- 
probable may even turn the scale in its favor. 

But there is also a dark side to the picture. §oc? e e t se Needs 
Along with features that compel our admiration, Christ 
Chinese society as a w r hole stands in sore need 
of Christianity. It would be alike unnecessary 
and undesirable to attempt to conform society 
in China to that of the Occident. Much as it 
owes to the spirit of Christ, Western civilization 
is not yet ready to pose as a model for non- 
Christian nations to copy in detail. But it con- 
fidently offers to every nation and kindred and 
tribe and tongue, the salt that has preserved all 
that is best in it from putrefaction. 

Why does the Chinese social system especiallv T yp e of 

- J v Early Social 

need the influence of our religion? To answer structure 
this question, we must study the structure of the 

55 



56 The Uplift of China 

family in China and trace its consequences. In 
the history of social development in the West, 
we must go back for hundreds of years before 
we find ourselves in the patriarchal stage. Early 
Greek and Roman society was organized on this 
basis, and we confront many of its features in 
the Old Testament. The scheme is a natural de- 
vice for lending stability to the social order. The 
family becomes a close corporation, with author- 
ity concentrated in the father, its head. With 
its welfare that of the individual is not per- 
mitted to conflict. 
Marriage Has In the West, when a son marries, he usualh 

Not Created a ' - ' J 

New Family separates and becomes the head of a new family, 
which revolves henceforth in an orbit of its own. 
For the development of his own individuality 
and that of his wife, this is undoubtedly the 
wisest course. But in the East, the develop- 
ment of the individual is not taken into consid- 
eration; the maintenance of the family as a unit 
is alone of importance. Therefore, the son re- 
mains under the paternal roof and continues 
under his father's authority, while his bride be- 
comes a minor subordinate, whose relations with 
her former home have been severed, and whose 
duty it now is to serve the parents of her husband. 
Even her selection, which we regard as a sacred 
and inalienable right of the individual, subject 
to the woman's free decision, is in China purely 
a concern of the family. The parents arrange 



Defects of Social System 57 

for the marriage through the medium of a pro- 
fessional match-maker, sometimes when the 
young people concerned are mere infants, and a 
man usually sees the face of his wife for the first 
time after the wedding ceremony has been per- 
formed. 1 

The typical Chinese household, then, consists The Typical 

J r ' Household 

of the parents, their sons, who probably have been 
married while still in their teens, the daughters- 
in-law, who have come without courtship or pre- 
tense of affection into their new home to be the 
servants of their mother-in-law, and their chil- 
dren. The daughters of the family, on arriving 
at marriageable age, have become members of 
other households and are seen only on occasional 
visits in a circle where they no longer have any 
rights. Property is held in common, though it is 
sometimes divided before the death of the father. 
The rights of the parents over their children are 
absolute. The father, and after his death, the 
mother, may chastise, sell, or even kill a son 2 or 
daughter. As for the wife, from the moment she 
enters the house of her husband, " she ceases to 

1 Archdeacon Gray tells of a wedding which he attended, 
where the bride turned out to be a leper. She was at once 
divorced, but the bridegroom was unable to recover more than 
part of the sum he had paid to her parents. Gray, China, Vol. 
1, 188. 

2 In the North China Herald for June n, 1903, is reported a 
case in which a worthless son who refused to reform was 
strangled by his own mother, with the approval of the clan. 

Dr. Nevius mentions an opium smoker who sold his wife to 
procure opium, and his son to defray the expenses of being 
cured, Nevius, China and the Chinese, 253. 



58 The Uplift of China 

have a wish that he is legally bound to respect." * 
The nJndl Even after the branches of the family separate 
into different households, the worship of their 
ancestors preserves a bond between them, and 
beyond this lies the constraint of the clan, the 
members of which live together in villages and 
have an ancestral temple in common, 
^heck"! What will be the practical effect of this state 
Progress f a fjf a i rs on social life and the development of 
individual character? It is evident, in the first 
place, that innovation will have a hard time of it 
in such an order. Large bodies proverbially 
move slowly. They must do so in order to hang 
together. To move an entire Chinese family at 
a brisk trot would imply an immense amount of 
initiative and decision in the character of its 
head. But the aforesaid heads are not apt to 
possess initiative in abounding quantities, even 
if the idea of progress in some explicable way 
should happen to enter their minds. They are 
old, and the impulses characteristic of youth are 
dried up within them. While in theory a 
Chinese becomes of age at sixteen, as a practical 
matter he is often not his own master until late 
in life. His father, his uncles, his elder brothers, 
all coerce him and control his actions, so that only 
natures of the strongest sort can hope to retain 
their independence of spirit. The average man 
becomes the head of his family with the powers 

1 Jernigan, China in Law and Commerce, 120. 



Defects of Social System 59 

of personal judgment and initiative largely 
atrophied by disuse, and is little fitted to lead 
along new paths. 

The mutual responsibility of the family also M^ai" ° f 
tends to check innovation as well as wrong-doing. Responsibility 
The father is responsible for the son as long as 
they both live, and the son is held accountable 
for his father's debts. In case of crime, other 
members of the family who have not had the 
slightest share in its commission may be pun- 
ished. The clan, the neighbors, and those who 
have had the most distant relations with the cul- 
prit may also be involved. Archdeacon Gray 
cites a case in which a man flogged his mother, 
aided by his wife. In consequence, the pair were 
flayed alive; the granduncle, uncle, two elder 
brothers, and head of the clan to which the men 
belonged were executed ; the neighbors who lived 
on each side, the father ,of the woman and the 
head representative of the literary degree which 
the man held, were flogged and banished ; the 
prefect and district ruler were for a time deprived 
of their rank ; and the child of the offenders was 
given another name. 1 Such mutual responsi- 
bility, if it be unavoidable, makes people watchful 
of each other, and especially makes the elders 
look with suspicious eye upon any aberration 
from the accustomed order on the part of their 
subordinates. 

1 Gray, China, Vol. I, 237, 238. 



6o The Uplift of China 

cianTradition Even if the entire family should be united in 
its desire to adopt new ideas, it would be held in 
place by the traditions of the clan. The power 
of the clan elders, which extends in certain cir- 
cumstances even to capital punishment, may 
surely be counted upon as on the side of well- 
seasoned precedent. The clan traditions, like 
those of the family, are not considered matters 
of mere convenience, but as possessing the sanc- 
tity of religion. In early society, custom and 
morals are identical, and from this attitude of 
mind China has not yet emerged. The worship 
of the family and clan ancestors has formed an 
effective barrier to change. Reverence for par- 
ents combines with fear of offending the spirits, 
in keeping the feet of the living in the paths 
which their fathers have trod. If a man should 
depart from the way approved by the past gener- 
ation, he might bring a curse upon the whole 
community. 
Filial Piety Filial piety in China has been developed and 

a Barrier . . t , 

exalted as in no other nation under heaven. It 
includes not only the honor of parents while liv- 
ing, the imitation of their excellences after they 
are gone, but the holding up in general of the 
standards of propriety which they followed. 
Thus the constraints of one generation have been 
handed down unchanged to those following. It 
is recorded of the Emperor Ch'ien Lung that 
" after ruling sixty years, he resigned for the 



Force 



Defects of Social System 61 

very Chinese reason that it would not be filial to 
outdo his grandfather," 1 who had reigned for 
sixty-one years. 

The officials in China have been for centuries Education 

Strongly 

chosen only from the ranks of those who sue- g° n ^ ervative 
ceed in passing the public civil service examina- 
tions. They and the host of others who con- 
tinue their trials year after year are the only edu- 
cated men in the empire and are the leaders of 
public opinion. But they have derived their 
ideas, not from the latest theories of political and 
social science, but from the classics which hold 
up as the ideal to be followed the golden age 
of Yao and Shun, usually dated in the third mil- 
lennium B. C. Up to within a decade, Chinese 
education has gloried in the fact that the teach- 
ing which it furnished was absolutely free from 
all adulterations of modern spirit. It would be 
difficult for us to overestimate the influence, as a 
conservative force, of having the only men in the 
community who know anything, to know nothing 
else than the opinions of philosophers who lived 
more than a thousand years ago. If we should 
ordain as the sole condition and requirement for 
office holding the passing of severe examinations 
on the works of the medieval theologians, and 
could exclude from the education of the candi- 
dates all more recent influences, w r e yet should 

1 Smith. Rex Christus, 26. 



62 The Uplift of China 

probably have an administration more liberal in 
temper than that which China has enjoyed, 
on infterac 6 ^he character of the examinations has also an 
important bearing on the amount of practical 
illiteracy in the empire. Schools are numerous 
and are attended for a time at least by a large 
proportion of the male population. Their pur- 
pose, however, is not to fit men for the ordinary 
positions of life, but only to prepare the candi- 
dates for examination in the classics, and in con- 
sequence, those who never complete the prepara- 
tion, — a very large majority of the whole, — re- 
ceive comparatively little benefit. In estimating 
the percentage of illiteracy, it must be borne iu 
mind that many of those who are classed as 
readers are about as fluent as most of our college 
graduates of twenty years standing are in Greek 
and Latin. They are not altogether illiterate, 
but on the other hand, they cannot read with ac- 
curacy and fluency. The number of those whom 
we should consider readers probably does not 
exceed ten per cent, and has been estimated by 
competent judges even lower. 
Patriotism The patriarchal system has its drawbacks in 
Developed government as well as in social life. The close 
union of the family and clan not only checks in- 
dividual development on the one hand,, but 
hinders a broad patriotism on the other. Each 
group thinks only of its own interests. Cliquish- 
ness always destroys public spirit. It is signifi- 



Defects of Social System 63 

cant that the recent signs of a national patriot- 
ism in China come mainly from students who 
have separated from their families to study in 
the provincial colleges and in Japan. 

What the father is to the family, and the elder £ at " na I 

J ' Authority 

or headman to the clan or village, that is the local of officials 
magistrate to his district, the governor to his 
province, and the emperor to the whole empire. 
Each official has authority over those below him, 
and is responsible to those above him for the gen- 
eral good behavior of his constituency. While 
in theory the government, like the oversight of 
the father, is for the welfare of the people, in 
actual practise the power granted to those in 
office is usually utilized for selfish ends. A great 
variety of civil and criminal functions are con- 
centrated in the hands of one man, which gives 
him great opportunity for abuse. There is a 
system of checks and balances whereby oppres- 
sion is kept within limits, but overtaxing, ac- 
ceptance of bribes, minor extortion, and irregular- 
ities are the rule and not the exception. Professor 
Parker says : " I have myself seen enough with 
my own eyes, and had innumerable free-and-easy 
conversations with both magistrates and runners, 
to enable me to state with absolute certainty that 
a downright bad magistrate, succeeding to a post 
dominated by a nest of evil-minded runners with 
a long-established tyrannical habit ingrained in 
their hearts, and practising among a stupid, 



64 The Uplift of China 

timid, or malignant population, can with impunity 
assassinate any one he likes in his own jail, accept 
any bribe, commit or condone any injustice, make 
his fortune, and even preserve his reputation in 
spite of all this. On the other hand, I have seen 
completely honest, simple-minded, benevolent 
magistrates, perfectly clean-handed (subject to 
custom), anxious to do right, loyal to their su- 
periors, beloved of the people, and quite capable 
of restraining the police." 
Dif lecur y ing The people are long-enduring by disposition 
Rights anc | h ave a wholesome fear of the government. 
Unless an injustice is of so grievous a nature as 
to rouse a whole village or clan it is apt to be 
borne. The principal concern of a magistrate 
is therefore not to administer equal justice to 
every citizen, but to keep the more influential 
sections of the population sufficiently satisfied not 
to appeal against him. Even if they should do 
so, he may succeed in checking their appeal. 
" There is no way of sending a petition, a tele- 
gram, or any communication whatever, to any 
one in authority, without running the gauntlet of 
a great many persons who will thoroughly sift 
the message, and will do their best to suppress, or 
at least counteract, whatever runs counter to their 
views or interests. One of the reforms most 
needed in China is a speedy and certain way to 
get the ear of those in authority." 



Defects of Social System 65 

It is probable that a magistrate has found it Temptation 

r ° to Corruption 

necessary to bestow a number of judicious " pre- 
sents " to open the way to his appointment ; it is 
quite certain that the amount he receives as sal- 
ary will be altogether inadequate to defray his 
expenses. He is consequently practically driven 
to employ arbitrary means to recoup himself. 
If he overdoes the matter of exactions, he may 
get into trouble with his superiors; if he under- 
does it, he will be out of pocket. The situation 
is far from ideal. 

The unjust system of holding 1 an official ac- unjuv 

J J ° Responsibility 

countable for troubles he could not have foreseen 
or prevented leads many a man to suppress bad 
reports of his district, instead of investigating 
and righting the evil. It emphasizes the necessity 
of merely preserving appearances that will sat- 
isfy the inspection of those above him. 

In such an atmosphere the people of China Results of the 

r sr r System on 

have lived in isolation for many centuries. The society in 

J C^**r* oral 

training they have received accounts for much of 
their wonderful homogeneity and for their re- 
spect for law and moral precepts. It accounts 
for their talent for combination, but it also ac- 
counts for China's lack of progress during the 
last thousand years. It is probably largely re- 
sponsible for the lack of originality so often 
thought to be a race trait. The system under 
which it has lived would certainly seem well cal- 
culated to discourage every impulse toward 



General 



66 The Uplift of China 

variation that the race may possess. It may be 
that the Chinese will some day, when their facul- 
ties have been set free from the binding force of 
precedent, exhibit greater originality than we 
have ever given them credit for. 

C °Fo e rTigners ^ * s a ^ so eas y to understand their contempt for 
foreigners. It is a peculiarity of human nature 
that those most hidebound are among those most 
supercilious. It is not to be expected that they 
should regard those who violate so many of the 
ancient rules of propriety as we do otherwise 
than as barbarians. 
Powerful We who have been so long time emancipated 

Even with us from the rule of custom sn0 uld not overlook the 

fact that, in the maintenance of their traditions, 
some of the best instincts of the Chinese mind and 
conscience are enlisted. We have no right to 
approach their system as mere iconoclasts. Mod- 
ern Anglo-Saxon society has been organized so 
as to open very wide limits, within which the in- 
dividual is free to move. When any innova- 
tion, — a new breakfast food, or hair restorer, — 
lies within these limits, it has only individual con- 
servatism to overcome in winning its way. No 
one is in the least lowering himself in the eyes of 
his fellows if he chooses to accept this sort of 
novelties. But there are things at which easy- 
going American society draws the line. Forms 
of the so-called " rational " costume for women, 
for instance, have not yet won the approval of 



Defects of Social System 67 

public opinion, and consequently they seem to 
the average person to be too ridiculous even to 
discuss. A woman would instinctively shrink 
from arraying against herself the sentiment of 
the entire community by adopting a style of dress 
it had agreed to condemn. Such an instance will 
help us to realize how hard it is to defy society 
as a whole even in a matter of mere convention. 

Fortunately for us, the texture of our society s"ron*gi?in 
is so loose, and its demands are comparatively so China 
few, that we are hardly conscious of any con- 
straint whatever. But in China, the man who 
undertakes to violate custom runs counter to his 
family, his clan, the whole force of public opin- 
ion, his feeling of reverence' for his ancestors, 
and fear of their spirits, the only ethics he has 
ever been taught, the views of the most learned 
men he has ever known, and, last but not least, 
the most ingrained habits of his life. Change is 
coming in China. It will be well if it come not 
too rapidly to permit of the gradual preparation 
of the individual and the family to receive it. 
Otherwise, social and ethical chaos may be the 
result. 

Let us next look at the relation of the patri- J^^*^ 
archal system to the individual. Surroundings 
of the kind that we have described are not apt to 
develop what we call individuality. The very 
conception of this implies the right of one indi- 
vidual to differ from another, of the present, if 



68 The Uplift of China 

need be, to differ from the past. It is not a gift 
which we inherit full-blown, but a potentiality 
which requires exercise and expression for its 
development. Precisely this expression is what 
the Chinese social system consciously and uncon- 
sciously represses. A youth is not encouraged 
to be himself, nor to express his own ideas. No 
one bears with his crudities and seeks to draw 
him out, in order to promote his mental growth. 
Instead of this, his elders control and snub him 
until the very idea of intellectual independence 
is starved within him. We are speaking of the 
average case; for in China, as everywhere else, 
there are natures which make some headway even 
against the most* untoward conditions. It is 
easy to see that the average Chinese will be sadly 
lacking in those qualities of independence, in- 
itiative, and originality upon which Western 
society sets such a premium. And the case of 
the woman will be infinitely worse. 
privac" ^ e Chinese is always under the public eye and 
under the constraint of public opinion. He 
knows almost nothing of privacy. He could not 
understand the lines of Lowell: 

" If chosen souls could never be alone 
In deep 'mid silence open-doored to God, 
No greatness ever had been dreamed or done. 
The nurse of full-grown souls is solitude." 

The separation of families in the W r est and the 
arrangement of houses insures to all but the 



Defects of Social System 69 

very poor a certain amount of privacy. This in 
turn has the tendency to cultivate self-reliance 
and independence of action. But not so in 
China. The way in which population swarms in 
his family court-yard, in his village, and along 
the whole daily path of the Chinese prevents 
him from knowing the culture that solitude 
offers. Hence he loses all taste for it, and en- 
dures without concern crowding that would set 
us distracted. 

Oriental custom has never demanded more Kpwanceat 
than external conformity. A man may hold JJ sincerity 6 
what opinions he likes so long as they do not 
affect his behavior. The result of this has been 
to exalt appearance as all-sufficient. Among the 
sayings of Confucius and Mencius are praises of 
sincerity, which is reckoned as one of the five 
constant virtues. But it is easy to see that a 
training which from childhood merely represses 
is not fitted to develop this characteristic. A 
Chinese says of his own youth : "The boy attains 
to the ideal character only when he habitually 
checks his affectionate impulses, suppresses his 
emotions, and is uniformly respectful to his su- 
periors and dignified with his inferiors. There- 
fore the child is early taught to walk respectfully 
behind his superiors, to sit only when he is 
bidden, to speak only when questions are asked 
him, and to salute his superiors by the correct 
designations. . . . If he is taken to task for any- 



70 The Uplift of China 

thing he has done, he must never contradict, 
never seek to explain . . . but suffer punishment 
in silence, although he may be conscious of no 
wrong-doing. ... I lived the years of my child- 
hood in a shrinking condition of mind. Like all 
youngsters, I wanted to shout, jump, run about, 
show my resentments, give my animal spirits and 
affectionate impulses full play. But . . . my 
tongue was bridled and my feet clogged by fear 
of my elders." 1 It would be a rare exception 
when one could grow sincere in such an atmos- 
phere. 
'seSie*" A P nrase which of late is often quoted in our 
" Face " popular literature is " to save face." Of the feel- 
ing which this denotes the Chinese have no 
monopoly, but their social ideals have developed 
it to an extraordinary degree. " Face " is the 
sense of having fulfilled the demands of appear- 
ance. The same training which smothers sin- 
cerity, feeds the desire to be above all things 
" proper." This desire has its good side. It 
holds people up to the performance of social 
duties which are too often repudiated in the 
West. A man would " lose face " if he neglected 
his parents or was backward in showing the cus- 
tomary hospitality. On the other hand, it fos- 
ters deceit, touchiness, and unwise extravagance. 
Falsehood is not permitted to stand in the way 
of face. Any violation of this false sense of 

1 Yan Phou Lee, When I Was a Boy in China, 18, 20. 



Defects of Social System 71 

dignity will arouse instant resentment. The dis- 
play at weddings and funerals demanded by 
" face " may plunge a family into debt for a life- 
time. 

It is impossible for a community to regard confid™ce S 
truth lightly and yet to preserve a sense of 
mutual confidence. Those who are willing to 
resort to falsehood when under pressure them- 
selves, have no reason to believe that others will 
be absolutely truthful under similar pressure. 
The result is that no one in China accepts the 
statements of another at their full face value. 
This lack of confidence is shown in public affairs 
by the absence of " trust " institutions and of 
opportunities for the investment of capital as 
compared with the West. 

A number of influences combine in rendering jj^jjj 
Chinese social life somewhat conspicuous for the fy£ r p e a s t s hy 
absence of sympathy. The extreme poverty of 
great masses of people, a poverty that requires 
millions of families to practise every possible 
economy to escape starvation, renders them cal- 
lous to suffering and want which they are unable 
to alleviate. The absence of nerves tends in the 
same direction. As a race they must be re- 
garded as cruel. 

Superstition aids in repressing manifestations |e P %|ses° n 
of sympathy. Misfortune is believed to result 
from the ill will of some demon, who may trans-* 
fer his persecutions to any one that attempts to 



72 The Uplift of China 

thwart him. Cases of distress are also neglected 
for fear lest the government officials should hold 
the would-be rescuers responsible for the evil. 
SysteJr^AUo The ^ m ^Y system only aggravates this ten- 
Responsibie dency to withhold sympathy. Affection could 
hardly be expected to run far outside the family 
or clan, but, even inside, the conflicting claims of 
sons and their wives are a great source of bitter- 
ness. Brothers and sisters-in-law too often look 
upon one another as competitors for the largest 
share of the common property. But perhaps the 
main difficulty lies deeper yet. Whatever re- 
presses individuality, whatever exalts formality 
at the expense of sincerity, whatever emphasizes 
the inequalities of position and privilege, what- 
ever makes it hard for persons to read each 
other's thoughts, — these things tend to weaken 
the sense of sympathy. 
ifev^io* While the Chinese is extremely sensitive and 
Tr controi yi^ing to tne force of public opinion, he has not 
had large opportunities to cultivate independent 
self-control. Hence we find him at once sub- 
missive and passionate, the latter especially when 
he thinks he has been subjected to a social slight 
The man who has been denied the exercise of his 
manhood during so much of his life must expect 
to inherit streaks of childishness to his dying day. 
Dr. Gibson remarks on the anomalies of Chinese 
character : " Very slow to strike, though ever 
ready to curse and quarrel, capable of great self* 



Defects of Social System 73 

constraint, patient, peaceable, law-abiding, in- 
dustrious, observant of the rights of others; and 
at the same time vengeful, implacable, ' pig- 
headed,' and obstinate, carried away, often on 
slight occasions, by passions of ungovernable 
fury." 1 

Are such individuals, with all their valuable ? n h a d e S q y uI?™ 
race traits and economic virtues, well prepared, 
just as they are, to face an era which calls for 
the most highly developed individuality? Can 
they be expected to acquire the needful traits of 
character without introducing a new spirit into 
their social system? 

Let us consider, finally, the atmosphere of the woman in 
Chinese home and its effect on womanhood and the Home 
childhood. The ideas of propriety emphasize 
the duties of the inferior to the superior and say 
very little about the correlative duties of super- 
iors to those beneath them. A Chinese woman 
enters the household of her husband's family 
tagged with the double inferiority of sex and 
age. She is only a woman, and she is probably 
the youngest woman on the premises. She is 
expected to serve her mother-in-law and to defer 
to her older sisters-in-law. If these individuals 
were gifted with any instinctive sympathy with 
youth, or if they felt under any special obliga- 
tion to be considerate and forbearing, the per- 
centage of happy households would be greater. 

1 The East and the West, October, 1903, page 369. 



74 The Uplift of China 

But the young wife is more apt to be greeted 
with the regard which sophomores and upper 
classmen entertain for freshmen, so that her life 
becomes a burden to her from the very start. 
Where property is held in common, her presence 
means so much less for the share of each of the 
others, and the feeling is not unnatural that she 
must be made to earn her way. In case of the 
quarrels which are practically unavoidable in 
such a situation, she may be without the sym- 
pathy even of her husband. Theory demands 
that he should side with his mother rather than 
with his wife, and he has no affection for the 
latter that would make him seek to comfort her. 
In many a household a young Chinese husband 
would be ashamed to be seen even talking with 
his wife, while to show her any consideration 
would expose him to the ridicule of the entire 
family. It is no wonder that suicides of young 
Chinese wives are far from infrequent. 
^tlrRiXtl The wife has few legal rights. She may be 
put to death for infidelity, but has no right to 
complain of it in her husband. She may be 
divorced if she beats him, while he is free to 
chastise her in any way short of inflicting a 
wound. She is not even allowed to leave the 
house without his permission, and if she dis- 
obeys he may sell her as a concubine. 1 

1 Mollendorf, Family Law of the Chinese, 30, 31. 



Defects of Social System 75 

The fact that a girl at her marriage becomes a Education ° f 
member of another family discourages her par- 
ents from giving her an education. Especially 
in the south of China it is not uncommon for 
girls to receive some instruction, but those who 
proceed far enough to be able to read for profit 
or recreation are probably less than one per cent, 
of the whole; Dr. Martin, of Peking, estimates 
not more than one in ten thousand. 

The unhappy practise of foot-binding has no 5oo t f^n d T ng 
necessary connection with the patriarchal form 
of the family, but it adds greatly to the disabil- 
ities under which Chinese women labor. Mrs. 
Archibald Little, whose position as president of 
the " Natural Feet Society " has given her special 
reason for investigation, says : " During the first 
three years (of foot-binding) the girlhood of 
China presents a most melancholy spectacle. 
Instead of a hop, skip, and a jump, with rosy 
cheeks like the little girls of England, the poor 
little things are leaning heavily on a stick some- 
what taller than themselves, or carried on a man's 
back, or sitting sadly crying. They have great 
black lines under their eyes, and a special curious 
paleness that I have never seen except in connec- 
tion with foot-binding. Their mothers mostly 
sleep with a big stick by the bedside, with which 
to get up and beat the little girl should she dis- 
turb the household by her wails ; but not uncom- 
monly she is put to sleep in an out-house. The 



76 The Uplift of China 

only relief she gets is either from opium, or from 
hanging her feet over the edge of her wooden 
bedstead, so as to stop the circulation." For a 
Chinese woman to confess that her feet gave her 
pain would be considered most indelicate, so that 
it is safe to say that there is much more of suffer- 
ing than ever appears on the surface. In addition 
to this it is a great check upon freedom of move- 
ment. 
The a ^ y Fauu There are some happy marriages in China and 
affectionate husbands. The wife who becomes a 
mother is treated with more respect, which in- 
creases as she advances in years. It remains 
true, however, that the social system as a whole 
is terribly deficient in providing for the natural 
and divine rights of woman. That the present 
situation does not cause the same amount of un- 
happiness that it would if Chinese women had 
ever known anything better is no excuse for its 
continuance. 
Childhood The Chinese home in its present state does not 
Misses furnish an ideal environment for childhood. To 
begin with, the ignorance and disregard of sani- 
tation is responsible for a large mortality rate, 
and many of those who survive the unhealthy 
diet and careless treatment jthey receive, prob- 
ably carry enfeebled constitutions through life. 
There is not the manifestation of sympathy be- 
tween parents and children that means so much 



Defects of Social System JJ 

in Western homes. A Chinese father who loves 
his children tenderly will yet consider it beneath 
his dignity to romp with them or enter into any 
of their games. A Chinese tells us that when a 
boy of twelve he left his mother to go to Amer- 
ica, there was no embrace, although the mother's 
eyes were wet. The little fellow gravely pros- 
trated himself four times, and the parting was 
over. 1 What would our own childhood and 
parenthood be, if we felt obliged to observe such 
a code of propriety? 

Another thing we should miss in China is the £oT Editing 
family meal. This, as we know it, is an insti- 
tution peculiar to Christendom. We could ill 
spare from our lives the memories of its social 
spirit and table-talk. In China men and women 
eat apart, and a child seldom sits at the table with 
both his father and mother. Nor has the 
Chinese child any knowledge of the books and 
magazines from which our children derive so 
much. The mental atmosphere of his home is 
far from stimulating. Even if he belongs to the 
small minority who learn to read with sufficient 
facility to enjoy it as a pastime, he is the rare 
exception, if he possesses anything suited to his 
comprehension. The quarreling between the 
women of the household, which he cannot help 
witnessing, aids in degrading his idea of home. 

The evils we have mentioned may be consid- Ne^aTd 81 " 1 ** 

1 Yan Phou Lee, When I Was a Boy in China, 96. 



78 The Uplift of China * 

ered as at least typical. Some of them may dis- 
appear with a development of China's resources, 
and the consequent rise in the standard of living. 
The spread of an education fitted to the actual 
needs of life will do more. But the root of the 
difficulty lies deeper. The Chinese family needs 
a new spirit, which shall lay stress on the duties 
of superiors to inferiors, on the worth of each in- 
dividual soul in the sight of a loving Father, on 
the sense of personal responsibility to him and 
not to custom. It needs to learn that a man 
should forsake his father and mother and cleave 
to his wife, to love her as his own flesh. It needs 
to learn that " dignity is not one of the fruits of 
the Spirit." It needs to experience the liberty 
wherewith Christ has set us free from the bond- 
age of the past. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER III 

Aim : To Realize the Need of Chinese Society for 
Christianity 

I. The Tendencies of Chinese Society. 

I * What are some of the more important things 
that you think Western society owes to Chris- 
tianity ? 

2. What incidents can you recall from the Old 
Testament that remind you of the Chinese 
family system? 

3.* Think out in detail how your own family life 
would have been different from your birth till 



Defects of Social System 79 

now, if Chinese customs had prevailed in this 
country. 

4. How would this have affected your father and 
mother, uncles and aunts ? 

5. How should you feel toward the head of your 
family, if he had the rights which Chinese law 
allows ? 

6* How much initiative would your father prob- 
ably have developed, if he had lived under the 
Chinese regime? 

7. What in general are the good and bad sides of 
the theory of mutual responsibility? 

8. What important influences would never have 
come into your life, if you had felt compelled 
to conform to your family traditions? 

9. How would it affect our progress, if no learn- 
ing was regarded with respect but that of 
Greek and Latin? 

10.* What qualities that China will need for her 
future development does her system of govern- 
ment fail to foster? 

11. What qualities ought officials to possess to 
make the system a beneficent one? 

II. Its Effect on Individual Development. 

12. If you wished a boy to develop initiative, what 
sort of training should you give him? 

13. If you wished a girl to become perfectly sin- 
cere, what should you tell he*- to do? 

14. How would the restrictions of Chinese family 
life hinder development along these two lines? 

15.* Do you know any persons who lay great stress 
on appearances ? How is their character af- 
fected by this trait? 

16. What special good has come to you from hours 
that you have spent alone? 



80 The Uplift of China 

17. When a man is repressed by those above 

him, how is he apt to treat those below him ? 
15. r With what individuals do you share the deepest 

personal sympathy, and why? 
19.* How many of the conditions that foster this 

sympathy are present in the Chinese social 

system ? 

20. What is the relation of " face " to sincerity ? 

21. Would you care to send a son or daughter to a 
boarding-school where you knew that school- 
opinion was all-powerful? Why not? 

III. Its Influence on Woman. 

22. If you were a Chinese girl, with what feelings 
would you look forward to marriage? 

23. How would you feel to have your sister mar- 
ried to a man she had never seen? 

24.* What difference will there be in married life 
when there has been no winning of affection in 
the first place? 

25.* What effect will the provisions of Chinese 
family law have upon the character of the hus- 
band? 

26. In view of the differing customs, what do you 
think would be the relative proportion of happy 
marriages in China as compared with the 
United States? 

IV. Its Influence on Childhood. 

27. For what influences of your childhood home 
life are you most grateful? 

28. To what extent are these influences present in 
the average Chinese home? 

29.* In what ways does the Chinese home violate 
the principles of child training that you would 
idvocate ? 



Defects of Social System 81 

30.* What sort of a man would you expect your 
son to be if he had lived from babyhood in a 
Chinese family? 

31.* What sort of a woman would you expect your 
daughter to be under the same circumstances? 

V. The Need of Christianity. 

32* In what ways do you think you might influence 
a Chinese home for the better, if you had made 
the acquaintance of the family? What would 
be your method of approach? 

33.^ How far do you think you could get without 
the aid of Christianity? 

34 * Give all the reasons you can why Christianity 
will be indispensable in making the Chinese 
home what it ought to be. 

References for Advanced Study. — Chapter III 

I. Home and Family Life. 

Bryan: Letters to a Chinese Official, VI. 

Bryson : Home Life in China, Part 1, II, VI. 

Douglas : Society in China, XI. 

Gorst : China, VIII. 

Holcombe : The Real Chinaman, IV 

Smith: Village Life in China, XXV, XXVI. 

II. Village Life. 

Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 40. 
Douglas: Society in China, V 
Hardy: John Chinaman at Home, VII. 
Smith : Village Life in China, I, VI, VII. 

III. Educational System. 

Douglas : Society in China, IX. 
Dukes: Every-day Life in China, IX. 



82 The Uplift of China 

Gorst : China, XII. 

Hardy : John Chinaman at Home, XX. 

Holcombe: The Real Chinese Question, III. 

Martin : The Lore of Cathay, XVI, XVII, XVIII, 

XIX. 

Smith : Village Life in China, X. 

Williams: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I, IX. 

IV. Moral Deficiencies. 

Bard : Chinese Life in Town and Country, II. 
Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 35, 36. 
Douglas : Society in China, XX, XXI. 
Graves : Forty Years m China, VII, VIII. 
Smith: Chinese Characteristics, VI, X, XXI, 
XXV. 



THE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS 
OF THE RELIGIONS 



China is popularly supposed to have three religions, — 
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. 

The first is not, and never has been, a religion, being 
nothing more than a system of social and political 
morality; the second is indeed a religion, but an alien 
religion ; only the last, and the least known, is of native 
growth. 

— Herbert Allen Giles. 

There is little hope for China, politically, morally, or 
religiously, until Taoism is swept from the face of the 
land. It is evil and only evil. 

— H. C. Du Bose. 

It [Buddhism] excites but little enthusiasm at the 
present day in China; its priests are ignorant, low, and 
immoral ; addicted to opium ; despised by the people ; 
held up to contempt and ridicule; and the gibe and joke 
of the populace. The nuns likewise hold a very low 
position in the public estimation. 

— /. Dyer Ball 

The higher class of Chinese should carefully consider 
the situation and should tolerate the Western Religion 
as they tolerate Buddhism and Taoism. Why should it 
injure us? And because Confucianism, as now prac- 
tised, is inadequate to lift us from the present plight, 
why retaliate by scoffing at other religions? Not only 
is such a procedure useless ; it is dangerous. 

— Chang Chih-tung. 



IV 



THE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS 
OF THE RELIGIONS 

>HpHE Chinese are not naturally a religious Not Naturally 
•*■ people. Although to the superficial ob- 
server they appear very religious, yet on closer 
examination it is evident that most of their wor- 
ship is empty formalism. While the Hindus 
are passionately fond of the metaphysical and 
speculative, the Chinese are practical and do not 
burden themselves with the mysteries of the in- 
visible world. As in nearly all lands, the women 
are the most devout worshipers: many of the 
educated men are skeptics, making only an out- 
ward acknowledgment of forms of worship. 
However, there are some earnest souls, seeking 
satisfaction for their heart yearnings, in the 
various sects. 

Minor Faiths 

Before entering- upon a discussion of the three Mohamme- 

r J, . . . dans in China 

great religions of China, brief mention must be 
made of two minor faiths. The Mohammedans 
are scattered through China, especially in the 
western and southwestern provinces, to the pos- 

85 



86 The Uplift of China 

sible number of twenty millions. They are more 
lax in their practises than their co-religionists in 
India, but they do not intermarry with the 
Chinese, and keep up the forms of their faith, 
making, however, for the most part no effort to 
proselyte. As yet very few have become Chris- 
tians, but there is no reason why there might not 
be a movement in this direction when larger ef- 
forts have been made on their behalf, — an enter- 
prise which ought at once to be seriously under- 
taken. Their moolahs, or priests, are often more 
bitterly opposed to Christianity than those of the 
sects of Tao or Buddha. 
jews in China There is in K'ai-feng, the capital of Ho-nan, 
the remnant of an ancient colony of Jews, but 
their synagogue has long since been pulled down 
and its timbers, and the sacred books as well, sold. 
The melancholy history of this sect is of special 
interest, and a concrete instance of how one of 
the most unimpressible faiths known to history 
may, having lost its original impulse, be disin- 
tegrated by the slow corrosion of the mingled 
polytheism, pantheism, and atheism of Confucian 
civilization. 1 
Three Three forms of religion are recognized, Con- 

Rehgicns =» . 

fucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The two 
former are indigenous, while the last-named came 
from India. Dr. Martin discriminates the re- 

1 For a summary of what is known of the origin of the Jews 
in China, see Yule, Marco Polo (edited by Henri Cordier). 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 87 

ligions of China as ethical (Confucianism), phy- 
sical (Taoism), metaphysical (Buddhism). 
Buddhism has adopted the deities and spirits of 
other religions. Taoism has imitated the trinity 
of Buddhism. Confucianism despises, rejects, 
and adopts both ! Every Chinese is a Confucian- 
ist, but most of them are likewise Taoists and 
Buddhists. They practise all three on different 
occasions and for different purposes. Because 
these religions have been mingling so closely for 
centuries, it is really impossible to trace all the 
elements of Chinese religion to that which gave 
them birth. 

Gibbon remarked of the Roman Empire that ™*££l a 
to the common people all religions were equally 
true, to the philosopher all were equally false, 
and to the statesman all were equally useful, an 
observation of which the student of Chinese re- 
ligions will often be reminded. The definition of 
Religion in the Standard Dictionary is as fol- 
lows : " A belief binding the spiritual nature of 
man to the supernatural being on whom he is 
conscious that he is dependent. Also the prac- 
tise that springs out of the recognition of such 
relations." There is, however, in the Chinese 
language no word which embodies this concept, 
its place being generally taken by a term denot- 
ing instruction, which contains quite a different 
idea. The phrase p'ai shen, signifying " to 



88 



The Uplift of China 



worship," or to pay one's respects to gods or 
spirits, is a vague substitute for a word which 
should mean religion. 



Viewed as a 
Religion 



Confucius' 
Life and Work 



Confucianism 

Confucianism presents itself to the inquirer 
partly as a system of political and social ethics 
and partly as a State religion, embodying the 
worship of nature, of the spirits of departed 
worthies, and of ancestors. From one point of 
view it is therefore a religion, while from another 
it is not. Confucianism does not conform to the 
idea of a religion which binds the spiritual nature 
of man to a supernatural being upon whom he 
is consciously dependent. It must also be re- 
marked that the term Confucianism is at once 
vague, inaccurate, misleading and indispensable. 
It would naturally imply a system of thought to 
which Confucius is related in some such way 
as Gautama to Buddhism, or Mohammed to 
Islam, but this is by no means the case. 

Confucius was a Chinese philosopher and 
statesman who lived in the sixth century B. C. 1 
In the days of the weak Chou dynasty and at a 
time when China was divided into a great num- 
ber of petty feudal states, owing only nominal 
fealty to the emperor, Confucius appeared, at 
once an officer and a teacher. In the former 

3 Bom 551, died 478, B. C. 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 89 

capacity his services were never long continued, 
owing to the reluctance of the kings of the sev- 
eral states to be guided by his austere teachings. 
The great work of Confucius was in gathering 
about him a body of disciples to a reputed total 
of 3,000, many of whom were deeply impressed 
with his doctrines, some of them taking great 
pains to see that they were perpetuated. 

Worship during the periods of Yao and Shun £££££** o{ 
was possibly monotheistic, if Shang Ti, the 
supreme ruler of the universe, is regarded 
as a personal being. But nature and ancestral 
worship succeeded this monotheism. Confucius 
countenanced the existing worship of ancestors 
and of spirits, but laid almost exclusive emphasis 
on ethical relations. He never taught the duty 
of man to any higher power than the head of 
the State or family. The Emperor, being the 
Son of Heaven, exercises his authority under the 
direction of Heaven. Right government consists 
in directing the affairs of State in harmony with 
the Law of Heaven. 

According to the Chinese ritual, Heaven is ^"^"^ 
worshiped only by the emperor at the two sols- ^mplfror 
tices in the Temple of Heaven, in the southern 
city of Peking, where the Altar of Heaven is the 
spot at which the ruler of China's millions, hav- 
ing by fasting and meditation prepared himself, 
with an elaborate and a solemn ceremonial pros- 



90 The Uplift of China 

trates himself before Heaven as its agent, its 
servant; and sometimes, as in cases of rebellion, 
flood, drought, and the like, as guilty of sins 
against Heaven which require confession. This 
was done by the Emperor Hsien Feng in 1853 
when the T'ai P'ing rebellion was at its height, 
imploring on behalf of his suffering people the 
compassion of the Sovereign of the universe. 
In this act the emperor recognizes that he rules 
by the authority of Heaven, to whom he is re- 
sponsible for the use of his power. 

^ovelnment Confucius laid great stress upon the personal 
character of the ruler, and attributed to his ex- 
ample an efficiency which has never been illus- 
trated in human history. The theory is that if 
the prince is virtuous and all that he ought to be, 
the people must likewise be virtuous and all that 
they ought to be. This assumption has been 
crystallized in the dictum of a Chinese philos- 
opher who lived B. C. 200 : " The prince is a 
dish, and the people are the water ; if the dish is 
round the water will be round, if the dish is 
square the water will be square likewise." 
How Good The teachings of Confucius, as to the means 

Government is ,.-•«.« 

to be obtained by which this good government is to be brought 
about, are fragmentary. What was needed, he 
thought, was a renewal of the old ways, and noth- 
ing else. " I am not," he said, " an originator, 
but a transmitter." His favorite disciple once in- 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 91 

quired how the government of the State should 
be administered, and Confucius replied : " Follow 
the seasons of the Hsia dynasty ; ride in the car- 
riages of the Yin dynasty; wear the ceremonial 
cap of the Chou dynasty; let the music be the 
shao with its pantomimes. Banish the songs of 
the ch'ing, and keep far from specious talkers." 
Thus in his view the past was the golden age, to 
the restoration of which he gave all his energies 
and his life, yet he died with a lamentation upon 
his lips over his failure. His conception of the 
origin of government is embodied in a passage 
in the Book of History : " Heaven protecting the 
inferior people has constituted for them rulers 
and teachers, who should be able to assist God, 
extending favor and producing tranquillity 
throughout all parts of the empire." Accord- 
ingly, the most able and the most worthy ought 
to rule, and should they lose their character they 
would also lose the right to reign, and Heaven 
would bring about their downfall. 

The admirable ethical system of Confucius ex- Practical 

Ethics 

pounds the " Five Constant Virtues " : benevo- 
lence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and sin- 
cerity. As it is difficult for one to catch the 
exact interpretation of these words, a few quali- 
fying clauses under each will give the general 
scope of their meaning. Benevolence implies an 
unselfish and active interest in public affairs, a 
charitable and forgiving spirit toward others, 



l>2 The Uplift of China 

gratification of the wishes of parents, and the 
merciful treatment of the fatherless and widows. 
Righteousness, more fully defined, means manly 
courage, fraternal feeling toward elders and 
younger persons, justice, integrity, and modesty 
in all things. Propriety demands a respectful at- 
titude toward all persons, preserves conjugal har- 
mony, declines much, and accepts little. Wisdom 
means a thorough investigation of the past, 
knowledge of men and nature, and the constant 
practise of virtue. Sincerity urges a simple and 
uniform life, and such absolute purity in the 
inner life that the words of the inner chamber 
should bear repeating in the palace. 1 While 
these are very commendable virtues, they have 
hopelessly failed among the Chinese, because 
the only help Confucius could offer for their 
realization was, " When you fail, seek help in 
yourself." 
The One of the characteristics of the teaching of 

Five Social • . f 

Relations Confucius is its insistence upon social relations. 
The Five Social Relations are those of prince and 
minister, husband and wife, father and son, elder 
and younger brothers, and friend and friend. 
" In the above order of relations, with the excep- 
tion of the last, the superior is set over against the 
inferior, with the result that the family and social 
life in China is largely dominated by a type of 
repressive formalism. Dignity, seniority, author- 

1 Martin, The Lore of Cathay, 209. 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 93 

ity are correlated with subordination, depend- 
ence, servility; and the spirit of freedom, self- 
initiative, and spontaneity find little scope for 
exercise." 1 

The existence of spirits is not denied, but IrJbi^ms"* 1 
much more depends, according to his view, upon Avolded 
men than upon spirits, who can interfere in the 
affairs of men only to execute nature's behests. 
If one lives according to nature and lays up good 
deeds, he reaps the benefits in blessings, other- 
wise he is injured, perhaps destroyed, but it is 
his own doing. As the Book of Changes says: 
" He that complies with Heaven is preserved ; 
he that rebels against Heaven is ruined." To 
investigate the laws of the unknown and the un- 
knowable spiritual world is vain. Confucius 
made man alone the subject of his study, and 
abstained from discoursing on wonders, brute 
force, rebellion, and spirits. On this topic he 
said that the art of rendering effective service to 
the people consists in keeping aloof from spirits, 
as well as in holding them in respect. " We 
have not yet performed our duties to men," he 
says, " how can we perform our duties to 
spirits ?" " Not knowing life, how can we know 
about death ?" " He who has sinned against 
Heaven has no place to pray." The laws of 
nature, and of the spiritual world as well, lie be- 
yond the comprehension of all men but those en- 

1 Sheffield, in Religions of Mission Fields, 209. 



94 The Uplift of China 

dowed by nature with the spirit of wisdom. To 
present before the people questions and problems 
that are incomprehensible and incapable of dem- 
onstration serves only to delude them by a crowd 
of misleading lights, and leads to error and con- 
fusion. 

afte°r n Death O ne of his disciples asked him the crucial ques- 
tion : " Do the dead have knowledge of the 
services we render, or are they without such 
knowledge ?" The Master replied : " If I were 
to say that the dead have such knowledge, I am 
afraid that filial sons and dutiful grandsons 
would injure their substance in paying the last 
offices to the departed ; and if I were to say that 
the dead had no such knowledge, I am afraid 
lest unfilial sons should leave their parents un- 
buried. You need not wish to know whether 
the dead have knowledge or not. There is no 
present urgency about the point. Hereafter you 
will know it for yourself." This, as Dr. Legge 
justly remarks, was scarcely the treatment of a 
profound subject which was to have been ex- 
pected from a sage who boasted that he had no 
concealments from his disciples. 
Sp worfd Of the far-reaching influence of the negative 
and cautious attitude of their greatest philos- 
opher and teacher toward the spiritual world, the 
Chinese are but dimly aware, until they have 
received enlightenment from a source higher than 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 95 

his. The gradual but inevitable effect of such 
an illumination is to put in a clear light the de- 
fects of the teachings of the great Master, while 
yet emphasizing the many and important points 
in which his system coincides with the teachings 
of revelation. 

All Chinese cities must be provided with tern- Tempos and 
pies to Confucius (but without priests), in which Worshi P 
are included also tablets to other sages as well, 
and here the Master is officially worshiped with 
elaborate ceremonies, and with costly offerings 
of silk and other gifts. 1 His tablet is placed in 
the schools throughout China, and he is wor- 
shiped as the patron of learning. On entering 
and departing from the schoolroom the students 
are required to make their bows to the tablet. 
The homage which is offered is real worship, 
and, as Dr. Legge says, could not be more com- 
plete were he Shang Ti himself. The widely 
spread clan of Confucius (the K'ung family) 
have certain valuable privileges, and its head en- 
joys the title of the Holy Man, although he is 

1 " The sacrificial animals, consisting of an ox and several 
pigs and sheep, are killed, dressed by scraping, and placed in 
kneeling posture upon the altars. All civil and military of- 
ficers are required to attend the ceremony. In Peking the 
emperor himself officiates at the head of the worshipers; in the 
provinces this is done by the highest mandarin. The silks, 
among which there are fine brochades, are burned. It has been 
calculated that 27,000 pieces of silk, each ten feet long, are 
annually destroyed in the temples of the empire in honor of 
Confucius. The cost of one celebration amounts to $125, or 
about $500,000 annually for the whole empire, not counting the 
cost and repair of the temples." Dr. Faber, Problems cf 
Practical Christianity in China, 22. 



96 The Uplift of China 

seventy-two generations distant from the ances- 
tor who gave the family its fame. From the 
foregoing sketch of some of the more prominent 
aspects of Confucianism, it may be perceived 
that many of the questions ordinarily arising in 
regard to a religion have in this connection little 
place. Confucius, as we have seen, is worshiped, 
and with him the early emperors Yao and Shun, 
Wen Wang, Wu Wang, and Duke Chou. Every 
magistrate is required to perform officially vari- 
ous idolatrous ceremonies at certain temples, es- 
pecially those of the tutelary god of each city, 
and of the god of war, Kuan Ti. 
Nature There is also an extensive and complicated 

Worship r 

system of nature worship which has been adopted 
by Confucianism, such as the worship of the 
deities of the hills and the rivers, the gods of the 
wind and of the rain, those of the land and of the 
grain, and many others. Every one, officials and 
people alike, is more than willing to do reverence 
to whatever seems likely to be of service in an 
emergency. 
Ancestral The paramount cult among the Chmese is the 
worship of ancestors, which existed before the 
time of Confucius and was simply recognized 
by him. It is the Gibraltar of Chinese belief, 
underlies their religion, and is the guiding in- 
fluence in their daily conduct. " Social cus- 
toms, judicial decisions, appointments to the of- 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 97 

fice of prime minister and even successors to 
the throne are influenced by it." 1 The Chinese 
believe that a man possesses three souls, which 
after death enter respectively the ancestral tablet, 
the tomb, and Hades. As these souls have the 
same needs after death as before, the survivors, 
especially the eldest son, must minister to them 
by transmitting to the spirit world (by burning) 
clothing, household effects, paper money, and 
other articles. Food is set before the tablets on 
certain occasions in the belief that the spirits will 
enjoy the offerings. The food is afterward eaten, 
but pious Chinese believe that the flavor of the 
food has been abstracted. Similar offerings are 
also made at the tombs of the ancestors once a 
year. The motive for the worship arises out of 
the belief that ancestors favor everything that is 
good and frown upon every unworthy act. 
Success in worldly affairs depends upon the sup- 
port given to the spirits in Hades. From the 
above it is very evident that fear is the spur to 
filial piety toward deceased ancestors, and that the 
offerings are not made altogether in the spirit 
that prompts us to decorate graves, adorn statues, 
or hold memorial services. 

One of the direct benefits of this belief is the f e ° efit f and 

Evils of 

reverence that has been inculcated for parents ^JJJJJ 1 
and rulers. " It has also promoted industry and 
has cultivated habits of domestic care and thrift 

1 Quoted by Ball, Things Chinese, 30. 



98 The Uplift of China 

beyond all estimation." 1 On the other hand, it 
has been said that not less than $150,000,000 is 
annually expended in ancestral worship out of 
the poverty of China. As it is necessary to be 
buried near the ancestral hall or among relatives, 
it prevents the colonization of the thinly popu- 
lated sections of the country. It also concen- 
trates love upon the home and thus precludes the 
development of patriotism. Furthermore, it de- 
stroys individual liberty, by imposing extreme 
parental authority, and most of all substitutes the 
worship of dead ancestry for the True and Liv- 
ing One. 
TT ,. . An As Confucius did not define man's relation to a 

Unrehgious 

Attitude supreme being, but merely set forth an ethical 
system, it is evident that his teaching cannot be 
called a religion. Perhaps the words of Dr. 
Legge are a fairer statement : " He was unre- 
hgious rather than irreligious; yet by the cold- 
ness of his temperament and intellect in this 
matter, his influence is unfavorable to the de- 
velopment of true religious feeling among the 
Chinese people generally, and he prepared the 
way for the speculations of the literati of medi- 
eval and modern times which have exposed them 
to the charge of atheism." 
Christianity ^- n an elaborate essay read by Mr. P'ung at 
the World's Parliament of Religions he remarked 
that, to a Confucianist, Christianity in China is 

1 Williams, The Middle Kingdom, Vol. II, 238. 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 99 

devoid of interest, although it is not obvious in 
what sense this can be the case. The late Li 
Hung-chang in speaking at a dinner given to 
him in New York, said that, having read the 
New Testament, he saw very little difference 
between its teachings and those of Confucian- 
ism, and this is probably the professed attitude 
of many Confucianists. Mr. P'ung complains, 
as in view of its contrast to the minuteness of 
the Book of Rites he well might, that the New 
Testament directions for social conduct are very 
meager. Confucianism has been very carefully 
studied by Western scholars, and its excellences 
and its defects have been thoroughly presented. 
If at a former period there was an excess of 
antagonism to it on the part of some mission- 
aries, there is now a tendency to a wholesome 
reaction, and it is regarded rather in the light of 
a preparation for Christianity. The point where 
there appears to be an irreconcilable opposition 
is in regard to the worship of ancestors. 

Confucianism is a wonderful system of wSeis ' 1 
thought. Its strength lies in the inherent recti- 
tude of its injunctions, which, if followed, would 
make the world a very different place from what 
it now is. But it altogether fails to recognize 
the essential inability of human nature to fulfil 
these high behests, and for this inability it has 
neither explanation nor remedy. In its worship 



ioo The Uplift of China 

of Confucius, and other worthies, its face is ever 
toward the past. Its worship of ancestors has 
at present no ethical value, and is quite destitute 
of any directive or restraining power. Con- 
fucianism fails to produce on any important scale 
the character which it commends. While it has 
unified and consolidated the Chinese people, . it 
has not, as the Great Learning enjoins, renovated 
them, and it never can do so. What it can do for 
China, it has long since accomplished. It must 
be supplemented, and to some extent supplanted, 
by a faith which is higher, deeper, and more 
inclusive. 

Taoism 

Origin Taoism, like Confucianism, is indigenous to 
China, owing its reputed beginning to Lao- 
tzu, the Old Master, in distinction from Con- 
fucius who is the Master. The only work at- 
tributed to Lao-tzu is called the " Canon of Rea- 
son and Virtue," a treatise of but little more than 
5,000 characters, remarkable alike for its brevity 
and its profundity. 

Taoist literature is vast in quantity, but with 
the exception of the classic mentioned is of little 
value, and is irreducible to a system, 
cwucunism According to tradition, Lao-tzu (who was fifty 
years the older) and Confucius once met, but 
while the latter spoke of the former with respect, 
he did not repeat his visit. " The ' Book of 



Literature 



Strength and Weakness of Religions ioi 

Changes ' is the connecting link between Con- 
fucianists and Taoists, the fundamental canon 
of both." Confucianism teaches attention to 
social duties and to etiquette. Taoism seeks for 
" the pill of immortality," having altogether lost 
its original character and become blank mater- 
ialism. Although the soul is more refined than 
the body, it is a material substance, and while 
liable to dissolution, may by proper discipline es- 
cape it. Even the body may become etherealized 
and be " wafted away to the abodes of the 
genii." There are in Taoist speech " Eight 
Fairies," often represented as aged men of ven- 
erable appearance leaning on a staff, or sitting 
under a gnarled old tree. They ride on clouds 
and at will mingle in human affairs. The in- 
fluence of this conception on the Chinese mind 
has been very great. 

While there has been keen rivalry between. Relations ta 

J Buddhism 

these religions in past ages, there is at present 
the peace of senility. The native religion is un- 
der extensive obligations to the Indian. " The 
Sutras of Taoism in form, in matter, in style, in 
the incidents, in the narrative, in the invocations, 
in the prayers, — leaving out the Sanscrit, — are 
almost exact copies of Buddhist prayer books." 1 

A being is worshiped having the same name Deities of 
as Shang Ti, or Supreme Ruler of the Con- 
fucianists. But in practise he has delegated his 

1 Du Bose, in Religions of Mission Fields, 164. 



102 The Uplift of China 

power to an inferior divinity called Pearly Em- 
peror Supreme Ruler, who is regarded as 
a deification of a man named Chang, an ances- 
tor of the present hierarch of the Taoist religion. 
The latter lives on a mountain in Chiang-hsi, 
where he enjoys great state, being in reality a 
spiritual emperor. He is styled by foreigners 
the " Taoist Pope." It is said that in his dwell- 
ing evil spirits are kept bottled up in large jars 
sealed with magical formulae. Like the emperor 
he confers buttons denoting rank, and gives seals 
to those invested with supernatural powers. He 
is the chief official on earth of the " Pearly Em- 
peror " in Heaven. His main function is the 
driving away of demons by charms and their ex- 
pulsion by the magic sword, and is known as 
" Chang the Heavenly Teacher." 

Tempies^and Q ne f ^he m0 st common temples is that of the 
" Three Rulers," those namely of Heaven, Earth, 
and Sea, sometimes represented as brothers, de- 
noting the three primordial powers of Taoist 
philosophy. But there are " Three Pure Ones " 
who stand at the head of Taoist gods, one of 
whom is generally regarded as a personification 
of Lao-tzu. One of the " Eight Immortals " 
was a man named Lu (A. D. 755), now, strange 
to say, the god of barbers ! 

D^gon^n^ There is a Dragon King ruling floods, often 
worshiped in the form of a serpent, either aquatic 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 103 

or otherwise. This ceremony was performed by 
the late Li Hung-chang, when Governor-Gen- 
eral of the metropolitan province of Chih-li, and 
during the year 1906 by Yuan Shih-k'ai, holding 
the same office. As no one can certainly know 
when a snake embodies the Dragon King it is not 
always safe to kill them promiscuously. 

The spirit world is supposed to be in all re- spirit wori<s 
spects a duplication of the present one. Each 
city has a tutelary god in whose temple is a 
series of rooms depicting the horrors of the 
future life when the soul shall have passed the 
Taoist Styx and is tried for the crimes of this 
life. Here are pictures, or oftener images, of 
men and women climbing mountains of ice, only 
to fall back again ; caught on spears and tossed 
jack and forth to executioners ; ground between 
millstones or sliced up with sharp swords, with 
a little dog running about licking up the blood. 

Each village generally has one or more temples Village God 
to the local god, who stands to the city god in the 
relation of a constable to a sheriff. On occasion 
of a death the family, go there at set times to 
wail. The original of the local god is consid- 
ered to be a famous T'ang dynasty scholar 
named Han Wen-k'ung. 

The Taoist mass for ferrying: souls across the £ hief . 

_ . Ceremonies 

Styx is an important one. Other masses are 
said at certain times according to custom. Even 



104 The Uplift of China 

Confucianists of the most agnostic type feel 
obliged to have either Taoist or Buddhist priests, 
or both, read their sacred books at funerals, 
otherwise no one knows what might be the con- 
sequences, 
priests Th e p r i es ts are almost invariably uneducated 
and ignorant, acting in this capacity merely 
for a subsistence. Many of them were given 
away in their childhood by their parents on ac- 
count of poverty, and know no other home than 
their temples. They are universally despised, 
but are considered as indispensable evils. Their 
functions are demon expulsion and devil worship. 
Taoism has a monopoly of the business of geo- 
mancy, which is interwoven with the entire life 
of the Chinese, and which has important rela- 
tions to such innovations as telegraphs, railways, 
and mining. The hold of this superstition is to 
some slight extent relaxing. 
Condition ^ ' 1S difficult to find in Taoism at the present 
day a single redeeming feature. Its assumptions 
are wholly false, its materialism inevitably and 
hopelessly debasing. It encourages and involves 
the most gross and abject superstitions, such as 
animal worship of " The Five Great Families," 
namely, the Fox, the Rat, the Weasel, the Snake, 
and the Hedgehog. On the drum-tower at 
Tientsin it was common to see richly dressed 
merchants kneeling to an iron pot containing in- 



of Taoism 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 105 

cense burned to " His Excellency the Rat," and 
the like. 

The effect of a belief in Taoism is to brine: the wasteful and 

° Dangerous 

living Chinese into bondage to demons, and to Beliefs 
the innumerable spirits of the dead. Incredible 
sums are annually wasted in burning mock- 
money (made of yellow or white tinsel paper in 
the shape of ingots) to ward off imaginary evils. 
Chinese demon possession, however explained, 
is a real and terrible evil. It is firmly believed 
that invisible agencies cut off cues, kidnap child- 
ren, and do other bad deeds. From time to time 
large portions of the country are subject to seri- 
ous panics in consequence, as in 1877, when 
there was a cue-cutting mania, and in 1897, 
when it was believed that children were kid- 
naped, in each case leading to the wildest and 
most uncontrollable excitement. The latent su- 
perstitions arising from Taoism are endless, and 
they are as dangerous to the Chinese themselves 
(and yet more to foreigners) as powder-mills 
and dynamite factories, which they actually are. 
The entire Boxer movement was a gigantic il- 
lustration of this truth, when all the laws of 
nature were apparently thought to have been 
suddenly repealed. Men who are positive that 
no sword was ever forged which can cut them, 
that no rifle bullet can penetrate their charmed 
bodies, that no artillery can injure them, are in 



io6 The Uplift of China 

the twentieth century perilous elements in any 
civilized land. China to-day is full of such men. 

Buddhism 

Origin 'pj^g f a jth was introduced into China in the 
first century of the Christian era, in consequence 
of an embassy sent to India by the Emperor 
Ming Ti, to procure the books of the new re- 
ligion. At different periods it encountered 
great opposition both from the agnostic Con- 
fucianists, and the materialistic Taoists. By dif- 
ferent monarchs it has been alternately patron- 
ized and repressed, although it was always able 
to reassert itself. 

The Chinese, unlike the Hindus, are practical, 
and not contemplative. The creed of Nirvana 1 
and of annihilation could not get a fair hearing, 
hence Buddhism, which is able to transform it- 
self in many ways, has allowed the craving for 
immortality to be expressed in the worship of 
Buddha under the name of O-mi-t'o Fo (Amita 
Buddha), in allusion to a happy hereafter and 
an expected paradise. The indefinite repetition 
of this name will bring great felicity, hence the 
devout Mongols spend most of their spare time 
in uttering the mystic syllables. The Indian 
doctrine of the transmigration of souls came to 
China with Buddhism, and is almost universally 

1 The end of all personal existence. 



Doctrines 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 107 

believed, leading to a wide range of supersti- 
tions. Animal and insect life thus becomes 
sacred, since no one can be sure that any particu- 
lar lamb (or louse) is not another form of one's 
grandmother. Matter is non-existent, the know- 
ledge and the pity of Buddha are infinite. " All 
evils are summed up in ignorance. To acquire 
knowledge of the emptiness of existing things 
is to be saved." 

The literature of Buddhism, like that of Literature 
Taoism, is appallingly extensive, embracing a 
wilderness of translation from the Sanskrit, as 
well as transliterations of Sanskrit sounds in 
Chinese characters, of necessity quite unintelligi- 
ble to the uninitiated. There are also innumer- 
able original works in Chinese. Most Chinese 
scholars neither know nor care anything about 
these laborious productions ; yet the popular 
tenets of Buddhism are deeply engraved on the 
heart of the Chinese people. 

They have tended to make the Chinese more £oo d and 

■' Evil Effects 

compassionate to the brute creation than they 
would else have been. It has introduced into 
China the graceful but costly pagoda, and the 
dagoba, or memorial tope over the ashes of dead 
priests. Buddhism has done little to relieve the 
sense of sin, and has long since degenerated into 
a mere form. Its priests, like those of Taoism, 
are for the most part idle, ignorant, vicious para- 
sites on the body politic. The religion, like 



lo8 The Uplift of China 

many of its temples, is in a condition of hope- 
less collapse. 
Some Here and there a Buddhist priest has em- 

Changes fot r 

the Better braced Christianity, giving up his precious bowl 
and beads, together with the mystic certificate of 
membership in the ranks of those who in any 
temple are entitled to support. Now and then 
with the willing consent of the people a temple 
has been turned into a Christian chapel. Under 
the exigencies of the present poverty of national 
resources, all Chinese temples not officially listed 
are liable to have their lands confiscated for the 
support of local schools and academies. This 
revolutionary move is sometimes accompanied 
with a prohibition of the further enlistment of 
young pupils, for whose support there would 
then be no provision. Were this regulation 
carried out generally, both Taoism and Bud- 
dhism would within the next fifty years have very 
little external expression, albeit the superstitions 
which they represent might perhaps remain 
latent but persistent. 
Temples The number of Buddhist temples is greatly in 
excess of those of Taoism. Many of the finest 
and most costly are scattered through deep and 
retired valleys, or situated on mountains access- 
ible with difficulty, where, retired from earthly 
contamination, the priests may perpetually drone 
through their routine rituals. 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 109 

The most popular divinity is the goddess of Deitie£ 
mercy, Kuan Yin (sometimes represented as a 
man), who is able to save from evil and to be- 
stow ultimate Nirvana. A p'n-sa is an inferior 
Buddha, of whom Kuan Yin is one, two other 
principal ones being Wen Shu, the god of wis- 
dom, who rides on a lion (especially worshiped 
at Wu T'ai Shan in Shan-hsi), and P'u Hsien, 
the god of action, who mounts an elephant, the 
former typifying courage and eagerness, the 
latter caution, gentleness, and dignity. " The 
image of the Fo (Buddha) or that of the p c u-sa 
is intended to combine in its appearance wisdom, 
benevolence, and victory; the wisdom of a 
philosopher, the benevolence of a redeemer, and 
the triumph of a hero." 

The power of Buddhism in China has arisen strength and 
from the fatal weakness of Confucianism, which . 
has nothing to say of the hereafter, or of retri- 
bution, whereas Buddhism teaches that " Virtue 
has virtue's reward, vice has the reward of vice ; 
though you may go far and fly high you cannot 
escape." The Recorder in one of the temples 
is represented with a book and a pen in his hand, 
over which is the legend, " My pen cannot be 
evaded." The insistence with which this teach- 
ing is emphasized has not been without its bene- 
ficial effect upon the Chinese conscience. 

In the mind of the reader the question natur- The 
allv arises what has been the result of this amal- inadequate 



no The Uplift of China 

gamated triumvirate of religions that has swayed 
one-fourth of the world's inhabitants for cen- 
turies. One of the best tests of any religious 
system is its effect upon the moral life of its 
devotees. " By their fruits ye shall know them " 
may be a trite expression, but it is an admirable 
challenge to the inefncacy of these Eastern 
cults. The moral precepts of Buddhism and 
Confucianism elicit our praise, but their power- 
lessness to uplift the people morally is evidenced 
by the prevalence of deceit, dishonesty, lying, 
mutual suspicion, and the total eclipse of sin- 
cerity. These lapses, the precariousness of 
female childhood, the inferior position of 
womanhood, and some unmentionable vices 
clearly show that some external force is needed 
to transform the moral life of the people. Chris- 
tianity will uplift these millions morally, invigor- 
ate the whole country, give them right relations 
to the Father, and provide salvation through 
Christ. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IV 

Aim : To Realize How Christianity Fulfils Both 
the Ideals and Needs of the Chinese 

i. Which do you consider is most responsible for 
the non-religious character of the Chinese, 
their inherited nature or their surroundings 
and training? 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 1 1 1 

2. What does the condition of Islam in China 
indicate as to the prospects of other entering 
religions ? 

3. What is there that you approve in the teaching 
of Confucius concerning government? 

4.* What is there that is lacking in this teaching? 

5. Have you any criticism for the five constant 
virtues ? 

6. How do they compare with the fruits of the 
Spirit? 

7. Do the five social relations cover everything 
that is necessary? 

8* What is the advantage and what the disad- 
vantage of laying such stress on these relation- 
ships ? 
9. Why do you think that Confucius took the atti- 
tude that he did toward the spiritual world? 

10. Is Confucianism better or worse for the deities 
that it worships? 

11.* Try to imagine yourself a Confucianist. What 
that Christianity now provides for you should 
you miss most? 

12. What motive should you have for doing right? 

13. What do you think should be the attitude of a 
missionary toward ancestral worship? 

14. If a convert brought you his ancestral tablets, 
how should you treat them? 

15.* What care should a missionary take in regard 
to social behavior? 

16. Is it an advantage or a disadvantage to the 
missionary that the ethical teachings of Con- 
fucianism are so high? 

17.* If you were a missionary, how should you ap- 
proach a sincere Confucianist? 

18. With what spirit should you deal with him? 



H2 The Uplift of China 

19. How should you endeavor to overcome his 
prejudices? 

20* How should you try to show him that Chris- 
tianity met both his ideals and his needs? 

21. Do you think that Taoism could possess the 
influence that it does, if it were built on no real 
need in human nature? 

22. What need do you think it has endeavored to 
supply ? 

23. Do you agree that it has absolutely no redeem- 
ing features? 

24. What sort of people have most to fear from the 
Taoist hells ? 

25.* What to your mind are the most serious evils 

of the system? 
26. Try to imagine yourself a sincere Taoist. 

Should you be glad or not to be able to believe 

that your superstitions were false? 
27.* How do you think that Christianity could be 

presented most attractively to a Taoist? 

28. How should you deal with his superstitions? 

29. To what needs of human nature does the 
spread of Buddhism in China testify? 

30. What do you consider the best features of 
Buddhism? 

31. Why is Kuan Yin the most popular deity? 

32. In what ways does Buddhism seem to you 
weakest ? 

33. Which should you prefer to be, a sincere Con- 
fucianist or a sincere Buddhist? 

34.* How do you think that Christianity could be 
most attractively presented to a Buddhist? 

35.* If you could combine all the best points of Con- 
fucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, what sort 
of a religion would you have? 



Strength and Weakness of Religions 113 

36. What would be the strongest motives in such a 
religion? 

37. How would it compare with Christianity? 
38.* How would Christianity fulfil both the ideals 

and needs of such a religion? 

References for Advanced Study. — Chapter IV 
I. Confucianism. 

Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 60-67. 

Douglas : Confucianism and Taoism, I-VIII. 

Gibson : Mission Problems and Mission Methods 

in South China, III. 

Nevius : China and the Chinese, III. 

Sheffield : In Religions of Mission Fields, VII. 

Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, XVI. 

Williams: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. 2, 194-206. 

II. Taoism. 

Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 57-60. 
Douglas : Confucianism and Taoism, I-VIII. 
Du Bose : In Religions of Mission Fields, VI. 
Gibson : Mission Problems and Mission Methods 
in South China, IV. 

Soothill: A Typical Mission in China, XVII. 
Williams : The Middle Kingdom, Vol. 2, 206-217. 

III. Buddhism. 

Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 67-73. 
Beal : Buddhism in China. 
Nevius : China and the Chinese, VII, VIII. 
Soothill: A Typical Mission in China, VIII. 
Williams: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. 2, 217-235. 

IV. Ancestral Worship. 

Ball : Things Chinese, 30-34. 

Bard: Ciinese Life in Town and Country, VI. 



114 The Uplift of China 

Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 54-5/. 

Martin: The Lore of Cathay, XV. 

Williams: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. 2, 237-239. 

V. Superstitions. 

Bard: Chinese Life in Town and Country, VIII. 
Denby: China and Her People, Vol. 1, 183-190. 
Douglas : History of China, XV. 
Dukes: Every-day Life in China, VIII. 
Hardy: John Chinaman at Home, XXVI. 
Holcombe : The Real Chinaman, VII. 
Nevius: China and the Chinese, XII. 



UPLIFTING LEADERS 



Ho 



They climbed the steep ascent of heaven 

Through peril, toil, and pain: 
O God, to us may grace be given 

To follow in their train. 

— Bishop Reginald Hcbcr. 

Pioneering, in any line of life, involves difficulty, dis- 
tress, discouragement, and especially is this the exper- 
ience of a pioneer missionary's early years. Nor is he 
generally dowered with buoyant hope above his fellows, 
though, happily for himself and his work, his call has 
shaken his soul to unwavering steadfastness, and en- 
riched him with a calm trust, sufficient for triumph 
over obstacles that often, even to himself, seem insur- 
mountable. The thought of the sublime faith and per- 
severance of that great man, Robert Morrison, and of 
those who followed him, is ever an inspiration to the 
successful, and a tonic to the depressed worker. 

— W. E. Soothill 

The missionaries have not sought for pecuniary gain 
at the hands of our people. They have not been secret 
emissaries of diplomatic schemes. Their labors have no 
political significance, and last, but not least, if I might 
be permitted to add, they have not interfered with or 
usurped the rights of territorial authorities. A man is 
composed of soul, intellect, and body. I highly appre- 
ciate that your eminent Boards (Foreign Missionary 
Boards of the United States) in your arduous and most 
esteemed work in China, have neglected none of the 
three. 

— Li Hung-chang. 



116 



V 

UPLIFTING LEADERS 

Early Nestorian Work and Olopun 

IT is not perhaps strange that, although there Discovery of 
are traditions of the introduction of Christian- 
ity into China at a period not long after the time 
of the Apostles, all historical traces of such an 
event should have been lost in the dim mists of 
antiquity. But it is certainly singular that, after 
it had once gained a firm footing and even im- 
perial favor, the Christian faith in the form of 
Nestorianism 1 totally disappeared from the em- 
pire, so that its very existence was forgotten. 
Had it not been for the casual discovery in the 
year 1625 of a deeply buried black marble tablet 
near Hsi-an containing nearly 1,700 Chinese 
characters, and a long list of names of priests in 
Syriac, the fact that such a sect rooted itself in 
the Celestial Empire would never have been be- 
lieved, as indeed after the tablet was unearthed 
it was for a long time discredited. Its date is 
781 A. D., during the illustrious dynasty of 

1 An early sect of Christians, named after Nestorius, patriarch 
of Constantinople, in the fifth century A. D. 

117 



a Weakness 



118 The Uplift of China 

T'ang. It records the arrival of a Syrian priest 
named Olopun, in the year 635 A. D., who was 
kindly received by the second emperor of that 
dynasty, whose title was T'ai Tsung. The style 
of the inscription on the Nestorian tablet is 
florid and highly obscure, yet one who already 
knows what the Christian doctrines are, might 
readily identify them, though buried under 
Oriental imagery. 
Pat?ana ! ge The melancholy history of Nestorianism in 
China is not encouraging to those disposed to rely 
upon the precarious favor of emperors, or officials, 
however exalted ; nor to those who omit to evan- 
gelize the people, and who preach a Christ who 
is human rather than divine. The followers of 
this faith were no doubt bitterly antagonized 
by the aggressive Mohammedans who arrived in 
China later than they, — the Nestorians in turn 
persecuting the early Roman Catholic mission- 
aries. Not a building which the Nestorians erect- 
ed, not a page which they wrote in the Chinese 
language, has even by tradition been preserved, 
save only the Nestorian tablet. 1 This is in itself 
a valuable and irrefragable certificate to Chinese 

'About the year 1725 there was discovered in the possession 
of a Mohammedan, the descendant of Christian or Jewish 
ancestors from the west of China, a Syriac manuscript in the 
same characters as that of the Nestorian tablet. It contained 
the Old Testament in part, from the beginning of the twenty- 
fifth chapter of Isaiah to the end of that book, the twelve 
Minor Prophets, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel, including 
Bel and the Dragon, with the Psalms, two songs of Moses, the 
Song of the Three Children, and a selection of hymns. Wylie, 
Chinese Researches, ga. 



Uplifting Leaders 119 

worshipers of antiquity that Christianity is an 
ancient and world-wide faith, which, more than 
twelve and a half centuries ago flourished in the 
central Flowery Empire. 

Roman Catholic Efforts and Matteo Ricci 

The missionary efforts of the Roman Catholic ™ e e m e t dieval 
Church in seeking to win the Chinese be- 
long to two periods, the first of which may be 
called the medieval attempt. This was under- 
taken in the thirteenth century, and the principal 
results were gained at the time when the Mongol, 
Kublai Khan, was in control of China. While 
there had been an earlier papal embassy, it w r as 
John called Monte Corvino who, having first vis- 
ited India, joined a caravan to China in 1291 and 
was received by Kublai Khan in the same spirit 
in which the T'ang emperor had welcomed the 
Nestorians. Under Corvino' leadership a 
church was built at Cambaluc (later called 
Peking), thousands were baptized, an orphan 
asylum was projected, and the New Testament 
and Psalms were translated into the Mongol 
language. But the mission was not followed up 
with adequate reinforcements, and after Corvino 
died at the age of eighty the movement quickly 
came to an end. 

The Roman Catholic modern attempt was The Modem 
largely inspired by Francis Xa\?ier and the Jesuit " empt 



120 



The Uplift of China 



influences which he set in motion, though he him- 
self died at the threshold of China in 1552 with- 
out having been able to enter the empire. This 
was accomplished in 1580 by Michael Roger and 
young Matteo Ricci, both of the Jesuit order. 
Matteo Ricci Ricci soon became the leader, was able to se- 
cure entrance to Peking in 1601, and met with a 
kind and even patronizing reception from the 
Emperor Wan Li. One of his most famous con- 
verts was a native of Shanghai, named Hsu, 
who took the name Paul. A part of his fam- 
ily estates near Shanghai still form the most 
unique and interesting center of Catholic in- 
fluence to be found in China. 

The death of Ricci in 16 10, at the compara- 
tively early age of fifty-eight, turned out, as he 
foresaw, greatly to the furtherance of his cause, 
in consequence of the reply to an elaborate me- 
morial of Father Pantoja asking for a burial 
place for the distinguished Western scholar who 
had given his life to China. Not long after the 
imperial edict was issued, Ricci was buried with 
a splendid funeral, which was rather an exhibi- 
tion of triumph at the favor shown than of grief 
for the death of the one whose fame had made it 
possible. 

Several points in the subsequent history of 
Roman Catholicism in China should be men- 
tioned. During the seventeenth century there 
were bitter controversies over the right attitude 



Concession 
at his Death 



Later 
Catholicism 



Uplifting Leaders 121 

toward ancestral worship and the proper term 
to designate God. From 1724 to 1858, during 
which Christianity was under a ban, Roman 
Catholics suffered more or less of persecution. 
In the period from 1858 to the present, the ten- 
dency of the Church to seek and to wield political 
power has endangered the interests of all other 
missionaries and even of all foreign residents in 
China. 

Robert Morrison 

" I conceive it my duty to stand candidate for J n h d e t he Man 
a station where laborers are most wanted." So 
wrote Morrison in 1804, at the age of twenty-two, 
when offering himself for foreign service with 
the London Missionary Society; and when it be- 
came evident that China was to be his destina- 
tion, he regarded the result as an answer to his 
prayer " that God would station him in that 
part of the missionary field where the difficulties 
were the greatest, and, to all human appearance, 
the most insurmountable." 1 

The remarkable application of Morrison to strenuous 

■ r Preparation 

reading, to study, and to the hardest of intel- 
lectual tasks redeemed any aspect of being dull 
that he may have had in his boyhood. As a 
young man, though engaged in manual labor 

1 Memoirs of Robert Morrison, compiled by Mrs. Morrison, 
Vol. I, 54, 65. 



122 The Uplift of China 

from twelve to fourteen hours a day, he read and 
re-read such books as he could secure, had his 
Bible open before him during his hours of labor, 
and studied far into the night. A little later, to 
the extent of his opportunity, he pursued courses 
of study and preparation for his future work in 
the academies at Hoxton and Gosport. But 
more astonishing than his acquisition of mental 
training through these avenues was his utilizing 
to the utmost any means open to him in England 
of gaining a knowledge of the Chinese language. 
It was understood at the time that but one British 
subject had a knowledge of Chinese, Sir George 
Staunton, who was in China as president of the 
Select Committee of the East India Company. 
plth^to thil M ost providentially for Morrison, a native of 
Language g ou ^ China, Yong Sam-tak, was in London at 
this time. He proved to be irascible in temper, 
but even this was a source of discipline in 
patience, of which Morrison would need a limit- 
less store in the trying situation awaiting him in 
the East. There were also found in the British 
Museum in London a manuscript copy of most of 
the New Testament in Chinese, translated by an 
unknown Catholic missionary, and a Latin- 
Chinese Lexicon in manuscript form. Taking in 
hand for the first time the camel's-hair pencil and 
acquiring from his teacher a little familiarity in 
writing the Chinese characters, Morrison now be- 
gan and in a few months completed copies of both 



Uplifting Leaders 123 

of the above-mentioned works. 1 This is sufficient 
evidence of the unremitting diligence and de- 
termination by which throughout his active 
career he achieved marvelous literary labors. 

As the ships of the East India Company denied ^^pa 1 ^" ° f 
to missionaries the privilege of a passage, Mor- 
rison embarked, January 31, 1807, for China by 
way of the United States ; and as illustrating the 
gains of a century in navigation it may be noted 
that seventy-eight days elapsed before the harbor 
of New York was reached, the passage now re- 
quiring a little over five days. 

His reception by the Christian workers, espe- stat h e e s United 
daily of New York and Philadelphia, was most 
hospitable and cordial, and when he sailed for 
his distant post, he was accompanied by the earn- 
est wishes and prayers of a newly made circle of 
American friends. Without doubt, his brief so- 
journ in the United States had a direct bearing 
upon the subsequent enlistment of American mis- 
sionary effort on behalf of China; and, as a part 
of the recompense for this influence, he bore a 
letter from James Madison, Secretary of State, 
to the American consul at Canton, and lived for 
a year after his arrival in the factory 2 of some 
New York merchants. 

After a voyage of four months from New JSSSdence 
York, Morrison arrived at Canton, September 7, 

1 Townsend, Robert Morrison, 32. 

2 The term " factory " designates the building where the 
trade operations of a foreign company were conducted. 



124 



The Uplift of China 



Friend and 

Native 

Teacher 



1807. Single-handed, as a representative of the 
religion of Christ he found himself face to face 
with the task of winning for his Master the 
world's most populous empire. In New York 
the ship-owner in whose vessel he sailed, being 
skeptical concerning his purpose, had said sneer- 
ingly, "And so, Mr. Morrison, you really expect 
that you will make an impression on the idolatry 
of the great Chinese empire?" "No sir," Mor- 
rison replied, " I expect God will." * In this same 
unshaken confidence he now began his work. 

Having a letter of introduction to Sir George 
Staunton, he found in him a man of noble spirit, 
and the acquaintance thus begun ripened into a 
life-long and ardent friendship. In many ways 
this leader of British commercial enterprise in 
the East was helpful to the missionary, at once 
being of assistance to him in obtaining as teacher 
the services of Abel Yun, a Roman Catholic 
Chinese from Peking. Morrison's first work 
was the more thorough study of the language, 
and in this he made astonishing progress. 

His marriage to Miss Mary Morton, the 
Position daughter of a foreign resident at Macao, oc- 
curred February 20, 1809. It was also at this 
time that he received a request from the East 
India Company to become their official translator, 
a position which gave him the necessary security 



Marriage and 
Official 



1 Memoirs of Robert Morrison, compiled by Mrs. Morrison, 
Vol. I, 136. 



A Great 
Translator 



Uplifting Leaders 125 

for the prosecution of the great task for which he 
had been especially commissioned by the London 
Missionary Society, — the translation of the 
Scriptures into Chinese. 

Perhaps the work of no other missionary trans- 
lator has been so far-reaching and profound in 
its influence as has that of Morrison. The tre- 
mendous difficulties that had to be overcome be- 
fore the whole Bible could be put into Chinese 
are to be considered. It does not detract from 
the essential honor that belongs to Morrison to 
say that he had the aid in the New Testament of 
the version by the unknown Catholic translator, 
and of the assistance in the Old Testament of Dr. 
Milne. Thirty-nine of the sixty-six books were 
his own translation. Nor does it make his 
achievement materially less to recognize that it 
was not entirely successful in its terms for certain 
spiritual ideas, like that of the word for God, 
and that it has been superseded by later trans- 
lations. These are disadvantages incidental to 
almost every pioneer version. None the less it 
served as the basis from which others could work 
out higher results. 

It was with peculiar joy that Dr. Morrison JJlSitooa 
was able, November 25, 18 19, to write to the of SucceS! 
directors of the London Missionary Society, in- 
forming them that the Bible had been translated 
into Chinese. He at once received the earnest 
and enthusiastic congratulations of missionary 



126 The Uplift of China 

and Bible societies throughout the world, and 
everywhere the announcement was an inspiration 
to enlarged endeavor. 
The ch?ni°e The next S 03 ^ °f ms translation and literary 
Dictionary e ff rts was the completion in 1823 of his Anglo- 
Chinese Dictionary, upon which he had been en- 
gaged for sixteen years. It was issued by the 
East India Company at a cost of sixty thousand 
dollars, and contained forty thousand words ex- 
pressed by the Chinese characters, filling six large 
quarto volumes. The work is almost as much an 
encyclopedia as a dictionary, and abounds in 
biographies, histories, and descriptions of nation- 
al customs, ceremonies, and systems. 

Son of His 8 Life ^ S ^ e m i ss i° nar y service of Dr. Morrison 
came to a close by his death, August i, 1834, it 
covered but twenty-seven years, yet in view of 
the circumstances, and the difficulties of the time 
his achievements are almost incredible. One of 
his latest biographers 1 sums them up as follows : 
" Any ordinary man would have considered the 
production of the gigantic English-Chinese dic- 
tionary a more than full fifteen years' work. 
But Morrison had single-handed translated 
most of the Bible into Chinese. He had sent 
forth tracts, pamphlets, catechisms; he had 
founded a dispensary; he had established an 
Anglo-Chinese college; he had superintended 
the formation of the various branches of the 

1 Rev. Sylvester Home. 



Uplifting Leaders 127 

Ultra-Ganges Mission; and he had done all this 
in addition to discharging the heavy and respon- 
sible duties of translator to the East India Com- 
pany, and preaching and teaching every day of 
his life. No wonder he had achieved a reputa- 
tion almost world-wide for his prodigious labors 
on behalf of the kingdom of God." 

Peter Parker 

If Morrison was able to show in a provisional M°edil?ai r ° f 
manner the advantages which would arise from Missions 
the use of the healing art as an aid to missionary 
endeavor, it was left to Peter Parker, throughout 
his long and splendid career, to demonstrate that 
medical missions form one of the essential agen- 
cies of completely developed mission work. 

Born at Framingham, Massachusetts, June 18, IduwtioS anG 
1804, he united with the Church at sixteen, and 
became a teacher in the Sunday-school at nine- 
teen, — a most unusual advancement in service in 
those days for one so young. Interested friends 
gave material aid in his education, which was se- 
cured at Wrentham Academy, and Amherst and 
Yale Colleges. 

It was at Yale that he decided to devote his life fo"ch™i nt 
to the foreign field, and when his preparation 
was complete, it included courses in both medi- 
cine and divinity. He went out, therefore, both 
as an ordained and a medical missionary, under 
the American Board. And so providentially had 



128 The Uplift of China 

his call and years of study been timed, that not 
three months elapsed between the death of Dr. 
Morrison at Canton, August I, 1834, and the 
arrival there of Dr. Parker, October 26, of the 
same year. 

ifSTwoS! A P art °f the fi rst y ear was s P ent at Singapore, 
but on the 4th of November, 1835, he opened his 
Ophthalmic Hospital in Canton, 1 and it quickly 
grew into a general hospital and dispensary. 
Soon thousands were seeking admission. The 
remarkable cures awakened toward this founder 
of medical missions, feelings of wonder, admira- 
tion, gratitude, trust, and deep devotion. Morn- 
ing by morning the approaches were crowded 
with patients coming for aid, some in their eager- 
ness rising at midnight, others spreading their 
mats the previous evening and sleeping by the 
threshold, that they might be the more certain 
of early admission. 

Marvelous £> r p ar ker was successful in performing some 

Labors and r t ° 

cures f th e most delicate and difficult surgical opera- 
tions, so that the blind were made to see and the 
lame to walk. His cures were pronounced 
miraculous, and the news of such wonderful re- 
sults carried through the eighteen provinces drew 
still wider circles of the afflicted to Canton for 
treatment. On many days this devoted servant 
01 Christ, walking in the footsteps of the Great 
Physician, dealt with more than a hundred cases, 

1 Stevens, Life of Peter Parker. 118. 



Uplifting Leaders 129 

till by night he was so weak and exhausted that 
he was in fear of falling or fainting, 1 but the next 
day he would again be at his post. 

While Dr. Parker was seeking to restore the Spiritual 

Purpose 

body, he was no less eager to bring to the soul a 
knowledge of Christ's power to save, and he 
found his grateful patients receptive to his gospel 
teachings both collectively and individually. 
Thus it happened that in three months the suc- 
cessful cures from his hospital did more to re- 
move the frowning wall of Chinese prejudice and 
restrictive policy than could have been accom- 
plished by years of customary missionary work. 
To use Dr. Parker's favorite expression, he was 
" opening China at the point of the lancet." 

The interest in the work inaugurated by Dr. p ^g Veniag 
Parker now became widespread; friends were 
gained of every rank from near and distant prov- 
inces; some of the brightest native young men 
began acquiring a knowledge of English, with a 
view to studying medicine, while others applied 
for situations in the hospital. In order to make 
the work more secure financially and to provide 
for its development, there was established in 1838 
the Medical Missionary Society in China. As it 
was the first society organized for the purpose of 
combining the healing of disease with the teach- 
ing of the gospel, it marks an era in the growth of 
modern missions, and not long afterward the hos- 

1 Stevens, Life of Peter Parker, 129. 



130 The Uplift of China 

pital which Dr. Parker had started was placed 
under the patronage of this new society. It en- 
couraged physicians to come and practise among 
the Chinese ; and from its influence the hospitals 
now found in the empire, with their equipment, 
their trained physicians, assistants, and nurses, 
and the education of native youths in medicine 
and surgery have largely come. 

oSident and The bitter feeling kindled by the Opium War 
Mamage between Great Britain and China made it neces- 
sary for Dr. Parker to close his hospital for a 
time and he used the opportunity to return to the 
United States after seven years of intense labor. 
Here he told of China's medical uplift. At 
Washington he enlisted the government in an 
effort to establish friendly relations with China. 
In Great Britian and France he powerfully pre- 
sented the cause of medical missions. Before he 
left the home land on his second voyage to the 
East, he was married to Miss Harriet Webster, 
a relative of Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate, 
and they arrived at Canton November 5, 1842. 
Amid fearful conflagrations and fresh forms of 
opposition, he resumed and prosecuted his work 
with remarkable effectiveness. 

^ ec /i ta 5£^ The time had now come when the United 

American 

Legation States could enter into terms of intercourse with 
China, and Caleb Cushing was sent as Commis- 
sioner to negotiate a treaty between the two 
nations. As a result, Dr. Parker was appointed 



Uplifting Leaders 131 

by President Tyler, secretary and Chinese inter- 
preter to the legation in China. 

Having planted so firmly the medical move- closing 
ment for China that he could safely entrust it in Labors 
a measure to other hands, though scarcely abat- 
ing at all his own medical and missionary labors, 
Dr. Parker gave increasing attention to the de- 
velopment of right international relations with 
the empire. In 1855, worn out with the struggle 
to bring China's leaders to adopt the right atti- 
tude, he sought respite in America, but was so 
strongly importuned that he at once returned as 
United States Commissioner to China, so contin- 
uing till 1857, and having as his reward the rati- 
fication of the treaty of 1858. In the years from 
1857 to the time of his death in 1888, Dr. Parker 
resided at Washington, active till the end of his 
eighty-three years of life for the Christian ad- 
vancement of China, America, and the world. 

William C. Burns 
As the life-storv of William C. Burns is un- An intense 

Evangelist 

folded, it is seen that more fully than with the 
other missionary pioneers of China his work is 
that of a sincere, self-forgetting, intense evan- 
gelist. 

He was born in the parish of Dun, in Angus, £°rentai ed 
Scotland, in 181 5, and was the son of a minister, Qualities 
who had the calm dignity of the oldtime pastor. 



132 The Uplift of China 

The mother presented the complementary quali- 
ties of blithesome activity and joyousness. In 
the presence of her elastic good cheer and cour- 
age, labor became light and duty pleasant. 
These contrasted characteristics of the father and 
mother were in large measure combined in the 
son, in whose nature there was always a deep 
seriousness but at the same time a peculiar win- 
someness and attraction that drew his hearers to 
him and melted them into submission to Christ 
his Master. 
Bva u n?eii 8 it n i! It was a t Kilsith, the scene of his boyhood 
scenes j 10mej w here his father had become pastor, that 
at a communion service in July, 1839, while 
young Burns was preaching, the Holy Spirit 
came upon the people, and a remarkable revival 
began. The same work was witnessed at Dun- 
dee, where Mr. Burns was serving in the absence 
of the pastor for a few months, and hundreds 
were converted and added to the churches in 
these parishes. This wonderful work changed 
the plan of Mr. Burns of going at once to the 
foreign field, and he continued without cessation 
in evangelistic services throughout Scotland, Ire- 
land, and Canada, from 1839 till near the close of 
1846. 
?o china In tne s P rin £ °f l &47 Mr. Burns accepted the 
call of the English Presbyterian Church, and 
sailed as their first missionary to China, and with 
surprising success mastered the language during 



Uplifting Leaders 133 

the first year or two of residence at Hongkong 
and Canton. It is said of him that he " spoke 
Chinese, wrote Chinese, read Chinese, heard 
Chinese, sang in Chinese, and prayed in Chinese." 
It was this entire absorption in the very spirit of 
the language that enabled him to acquire such a 
command of it that he could go from one part 
of China to another and yet always remain an 
evangelistic preacher to the people. It also gave 
him a preparation to translate the Pilgrim's 
Progress into both the Amoy and the Peking 
dialects, as well as many hymns into colloquial 
Chinese, some of which are still in use. 

Scarcely was he started in learning the Ian- HoSkon| sal 
guage when he went to the prison at Hongkong, 
seeking to talk and pray with three Chinese con- 
demned to death. Like his divine Master it was 
ever his delight to care first of all and most of 
all for those whom others overlooked, to leave 
the ninety and nine that were in safety and go 
after the utterly lost in the heathen wilderness. 
He already began to move forth among the 
masses of the people and to win the friendly 
reception and good humor with which a Chinese 
crowd seems ready to greet the man of genial 
sympathy, of quiet self-possession, and of quick 
and apt response to their questions. 

His first preaching" tour outside of Hongkong- Evangelizing 

. , the Villages 

is characteristic. He left his assistants to direct 



** 134 The Uplift of China 

the boat to any point they thought best on the 
long-extended coast, while he went through the 
villages and towns, making the gospel known by 
tracts and addresses. As soon as he reached 
a village, he would begin reading his Bible aloud, 
perhaps under the shade of a tree. Soon the 
people would gather, and he would explain to 
them the nature and purpose of the gospel. 
Usually some one would ask him at meal-time 
where he was to eat, and he would accept the 
hospitality of the friendly villager, and go on 
trusting in the same manner for his night's shel- 
ter, thus often preaching the Word from week 
to week, and lacking nothing. 
Campaigning Four hundred miles northeast of Hongkong is 
the teeming hive of human life made up of Amoy 
and more than a hundred towns and villages, and 
in 185 1 this became the field of Mr. Burns' 
labors. In March, 1852, he crossed over to the 
mainland from Amoy, which is located upon an 
island, and in the course of seven days made a 
circuit of thirty villages, everywhere sowing 
abundantly the precious seed. The next year he 
reached Chang-chou, thirty miles distant, with 
its population of about half a million, and he 
says : " I do not think, upon the whole, that I 
have spent so interesting a season, or enjoyed so 
fine an opportunity of preaching the Word of 
Life since I came to China, as during these nine 



Uplifting Leaders 135 

days." 1 The fire thus kindled at Chang-chou was 
never wholly extinguished. 

The results of Mr. Burns' earnest evangelistic Revival Day§ 
work now began to appear especially at Pechuia 
and one or two other towns, not far from Amoy. 
There was a movement of quickening and con- 
version running through many of the families of 
these communities. The preaching place was 
crowded to a late hour night after night, idols and 
ancestral tablets were destroyed, and some shops 
were closed on the Sabbath, even when it fell on 
market days. " What I see here," wrote Mr. 
Burns, " makes me call to mind former days of 
the Lord's power in my native land." 

There now came a brief visit to Great Britain, Aggressive 

' Tours trom 

and on his return to the East the aggressive mis- shanghai 
sionary evangelist sought, from Shanghai as a 
base, to penetrate even into the lines of operation 
that marked the contact of the imperial and in- 
surgent forces in the T'ai-p'ing rebellion. Going 
up the Yang-tzu River as far as he could possibly 
induce his boatmen to venture, he entered the 
Grand Canal, and at one point such was the 
eagerness of the men to get the Christian books 
that he was distributing, that they would swim 
to his boat from the bank of the canal, fasten the 
books to their heads by their cues, and swim 
back again ! Again, as they passed through Su- 
chou, many reached forth from their doors and 

1 Memoir of Rev. William C. Burns, by his brother, 251. 



136 The Uplift of China 

windows with bamboo basket-hooks, with which 
they received Scripture portions and tracts. Thus 
living most of the time in his boat, for some 
months he followed the course of the canals and 
rivers which spread like a network over the whole 
country to the west and south of Shanghai, carry- 
ing far and wide the quickening gospel leaven, 
labors ^he dosing" period of his career may be said to 
date from the spring of 1856, when he began 
work first in the region of Swatau, a hundred and 
twenty miles southwest of Amoy. Here he 
ventured to make a missionary visit to Ch'ao- 
chou, but was arrested as a foreigner, and after 
inquiry had been made into the case, was taken to 
the British consul at Canton. After his libera- 
tion it was not deemed prudent to return to 
Swatau, so he revisited the scenes of his revival 
labors at Pechuia, confirming the hearts of the 
Christian disciples, reorganizing the churches, 
and even at that very early date making a be- 
ginning in self-support. Next, Fu-chou was for 
a time the scene of his activities. That he 
might secure governmental protection of some of 
the native Christians who had been despoiled of 
their goods, he went to Peking. Here occurred 
his translation of the Pilgrim's Progress into 
Pekingese. Then came the final choice for this 
intrepid pioneer and breaker of new ground 
whether he would go to Shan-tung or to Man- 
churia. But his knowledge of the needs of the 



Uplifting Leaders 137 

more northern field led him to go m that direc- 
tion. Soon after reaching Xiu-ch'uang in Man- 
churia he was taken ill with a cold and fever 
from which he died, April 4, 1868. 

Thus closed the life so fervent and consistent a Hem* 

Grave 

in its devotion to Christ as to leave an indelible 
mark on two hemispheres, three continents, and 
many countries. " His grave stands on the 
borders of the great kingdom of Manchuria, the 
advanced post of Christian conquests, beyond the 
northern limits of China. The little mound casts 
its shadow over many lands, for where is not 
Burns loved and mourned? But his life is the 
Church's legacy, and his indomitable spirit beck- 
ons us to the field of conflict and of victory." 1 

James Addison Ingle 

In the autumn of 1890 Archdeacon Thomson, His Call 
a veteran of thirty years' service in China, came 
to the seminary at Alexandria, Virginia, told of 
the difficulties and blessings of the work and 
asked for volunteers. He then put the closing 
question : " Gentlemen, must I go back alone ?" 

In his audience was one whose ability and con- His Response 
secrated life had earned from his classmates the 
title of ' Bishop.' He was the senior student, 
who had charge of the chapel for colored people 
near the seminary buildings ; a man of large 

1 Rev. James Johnston, quoted in Memoir of William C. 
Burns. 359. 



138 The Uplift of China 

ideals, who was also thoughtful of little things. 
He had begun to make a path through the soft 
ground between the seminary and his chapel by 
using the ashes from his stove each day. A 
fellow student asked him, " Why do you bother 
with the path, Bishop ; you won't be in the semi- 
nary long enough to enjoy it?" " No," was the 
reply, " but it will always be here for the other 
fellows." The pathmaker was James Addison 
Ingle, and as he listened to the old missionary, 
he saw the opportunity for a pathmaker in the 
Orient. He applied for appointment to China 
at a time when the Board of Managers felt un- 
able to increase its financial responsibilities ; and 
in order to carry out his purpose raised his own 
traveling expenses and a year's salary. Shortly 
after his arrival at Shanghai, in 189 1, there arose 
a pressing need for a foreign worker at Han-k'ou. 
He went to this post six hundred miles up the 
Yang-tzu River, looked over the situation, and 
decided to undertake the work. Within a year 
and a half his senior worker retired. permanently 
from the mission, leaving Mr. Ingle in charge. 
stw onsibmt k -^ e ^ad been in China less than two years, 
and had devoted himself zealously to the study 
of the people and their language, but still he was 
lacking in much of the practical experience, 
which is so large a part of the missionary's capi- 
tal and so important an element in the mission- 
ary's influence. In spite of these disadvantages,. 



Uplifting Leaders 139 

he was left as the only American representative 
of his Church in the great heathen city in central 
China. 

The condition of the mission was critical. A Using 

Laymen 

large number of Chinese had been brought into 
the Church and needed supervision and instruc- 
tion. Mr. Ingle was convinced from the very 
beginning that a church must be self-maintain- 
ing, self-disciplining, self-propagating, and began 
to apply these principles. Self-extension was 
his first care. Local growth made it impossible 
for him to wait for a sufficient number of Chinese 
clergy; and he gathered a few laymen close to 
him, worked into the very fiber of their lives 
the story and the motive of the Christ, led them 
from the old darkness to the new light, and so 
trained them to become catechists and evangelists 
to their people. As these men went to live in 
towns near Han-k'ou and repeated this process 
among their brethren, Mr. Ingle went from point 
to point, meeting the groups of men he had in- 
terested. He examined them as to what they had 
learned, received as candidates for baptism those 
who had been instructed, explained difficulties, 
and, when they had been tested and taught for 
another six months, baptized them. 

Extracts from his letters at this time are char- visitation 
acteristic of the man : "Ona recent trip to Han- 
ch'uan," he wrote, " I had the same sort of 
weather that we have had almost continuously 



140 The Uplift of China 

since Christmas — steady and heavy rain — but the 
trip was a pleasant and successful one for all 
that." Then follows an account of his rapid 
journey, with frequent stops to hold services, 
examine candidates, to discipline some and to en- 
courage others, and to stimulate and guide the 
native catechists and evangelists. The examina- 
tion of catechumens and even of applicants for 
admission to their number was no mere formality. 
F jiS?fied At one station, the wealthiest man in the city 
and a former military commander of high rank, 
w T ished to become a catechumen. He passed his 
examination, but had two wives and was an 
opium smoker. He promised to give up and pro- 
vide financially for his concubine and also to dis- 
continue the use of opium and asked to be ad- 
mitted at the same time as the others, since the 
whole city knew of his connection with the 
Church and he would l lose face ' if he were re- 
jected. Mr. Ingle held to the principle in- 
volved and refused the request. His decision 
was justified. The distinguished applicant stood 
throughout the service where his own servant 
was publicly admitted ; his courtesy as Mr. Ingle's 
host was undiminished, and afterwards he ful- 
filled his promise of amendment and was then 
admitted into the Church. 
C«r«f«l Despite every care, modern China, like ancient 
Corinth, showed that, where new converts are 
taken directly from heathenism, self-discipline be- 



Uplifting Leaders 141 

comes a necessary part of the growing Church- 
Mr. Ingle followed the New Testament practise,, 
and the offender whose sin had brought public 
shame on the Church was required to make public 
confession of his sin in the congregation, all the 
reparation possible, and submit to being deprived 
of Church privileges. He was obliged to attend 
the services as before, but must occupy the bench 
assigned to penitents. In addition, his name, 
the nature of the offense, and of the discipline im- 
posed was written out and posted in the ' guest 
room', — the room in the mission open to and fre- 
quented by the public. When the offender had 
served his probation and proved the sincerity 
of his repentance, the sign was removed and he 
w r as publicly declared forgiven and restored. 
This system was begun and carried out in a 
loving spirit and with the approval of the native 
clergy. 

The principle of self -maintenance was urged %^%^ iTi ^ rt 
from the beginning. In the new stations the 
Church services were in the upper room of some 
Christian's house. Rude benches, Chinese wall 
scrolls, with Chinese inscriptions, a Chinese table 
for an altar, and the simplest cross alone marked 
the room as a church. Mr. Ingle was not afraid 
to withhold or withdraw financial aid in the in- 
terests of seif-support. And under him the mis- 
sions met New Testament conditions and at- 
tained a genuine Christian reality. 



142 The Uplift of China 

De wo°rki n r? ^is consistent attitude toward the humblest 
catechist is summed up in the following advice 
to his fellow missionaries: "When you have 
chosen your men, keep an eye on them. Let them 
see that you are watching them and do not in- 
tend to allow any one to fall asleep at his post. 
Keep a list of the converts that they have brought 
in, and now and then call the workers to account 
for them. It will make them more careful. 
Don't merely scold them through the deacon, 
but talk to them face to face. And, above all, 
teach them. Don't suppose that, because they 
have been in the Church for years, they know 
everything. The best of them know little and 
read less. Meet them regularly in classes ; give 
them lessons to prepare. I believe that the 
best way to train all workers is by meeting them 
regularly and intimately out of the pulpit, in 
classes, best held, I think, in our own houses, 
where we can act the host as well as the pastor." 
Gospel In the midst of many details, Mr. Ingle placed 

Emphasis . . . , 

the emphasis on the heart of the gospel in his 
dealings with those under him. One of them 
writes : " A fellow worker and I had so greatly 
differed and each so firmly believed himself in 
the right that it seemed to be a hopeless block to 
our cooperative work. I told Bishop Ingle of the 
affair, for I wanted his help in the matter, and I 
expected him to ask minutely of the rights and 
wrongs thereof. But not so, nothing was further 



Uplifting Leaders 143 

from his thoughts. All he said was, ' Doctor, 
if we foreign workers cannot manage to live 
together in Christian love, how can we hope to 
teach the Chinese to live so? Our many dif- 
ferences and eccentricities are for discipline, and 
serve as our finest opportunities of showing the 
natives how Christians live together in peace/ 
And the conversation ended right there. By 
such methods and with such a spirit, in ten years 
he built up in central China a strong native 
Church, well-ordered congregations, with its own 
native clergy, catechists, teachers, Bible women, 
and other helpers." 

When a new missionary district was created, § el c f ,: ificin 
in 1 901, he was made its first bishop. The Leadership 
pleasure of his associates ac his election and their 
abiding affection and loyalty speak well for him 
and the character of his work. He had just re- 
turned from a year's furlough in the United 
States, during which time he had been traveling 
and making addresses almost constantly in the 
interests of his work, and returned to China in 
no condition to stand the strain of a bishop's life. 
Ill health w T as almost constant, but he insisted 
on keeping at his task of making modern equip- 
ment adequate to unprecedented opportunities. 
He kept his work in mind to the last and the day 
before he died he sent this message to the Chinese 
Christians and clergy : " Tell them that as I 
have tried to serve them in Christ's name while 



144 The Uplift of China 

living, so if God please to take me away from this 
world, I pray that even my death may be a bless- 
ing to them and help them to grow in the faith 
and love of Christ. May they be pure in heart, 
loving Christ for his own sake, and steadfastly 
follow the dictates of conscience uninfluenced by 
sordid ambitions or selfishness of any kind." 
Dying n b y The next day when the end came, he gathered 
about him the members of his own family and a 
few of the mission staff, and began to pray in 
the same clear and rich voice all knew so well. 
He asked God to look with mercy on the past and 
to use to his glory all efforts put forth in his 
name. He prayed for his family, committing 
them to the care of the Father ; for the members 
of the staff that they might be strong, brave, and 
united, never fearful or halting in the work 
committed to them. He prayed for the Church 
in China and for the Church at home, especially 
asking that God would stir His people in 
America to support the work more loyally and 
generously, giving more men and better men, 
men rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, 
to proclaim his gospel and establish his Church 
in China. When the sad day of burial came, St. 
Paul's Church in Han-k'ou, where less than two 
years before the young bishop had been conse- 
crated, was twice crowded, one with a reverent 
congregation of Chinese Christians, and again 
with the members of the foreign community. 



Uplifting Leaders 145 

Out from his church they carried him to the for- 
eign cemetery where his body was to be laid to 
rest, through streets lined with Chinese, many of 
them weeping as they realized that no more 
should they see in this life their friend and 
bishop. 

His influence reached out far beyond his im- Undying 

J Influence 

mediate work in China; his statesmanlike ability 
and his consecration had begun to be felt among 
the leaders of his Church in the United States, 
and in China there were many in other mission* 
who recognized his wisdom and efficiency. Dr. 
Griffith John, of Han-k'ou, who has been half a 
century in central China as the representative of 
the London Missionary Society, expressed the 
conviction of many others when he said that he 
was sure that if God had seen fit to spare Bishop 
Ingle's life for twenty or thirty years, he would 
have become one of the greatest missionaries of 
modern times. 

Reinforcements in China's Uplift 

It will be found most convenient in this rapid Three Period 
survey, to divide China's century of missions into 
three periods : the first, of thirty-five years, from 
1807 to 1842, the close of the Opium War; the 
second, of thirty-five years, from 1842 to 1877, 
the date of the first Missionary Conference ; and 
the third, from 1877 to 1907. 



146 The Uplift of China 

Fir«t Period, In the first period, aside from the leaders al- 

Milne and 

Bridgman ready sketched, perhaps the only names that call 
for emphatic mention are those of the Rev. Wil- 
liam Milne, Morrison's able and active associate 
from 1813 to 1822, and of Dr. Elijah C. Bridg- 
man, the pioneer American missionary. In addi- 
tion to Milne's notable achievements as educator, 
translator, and printer, he is to be remembered 
as an author of exceptional fertility, — one of 
his smaller productions, " The Two Friends," 
being still popular and effective throughout 
China. Dr. Bridgman's enduring monument is 
made up of the volumes of the Chinese Reposi- 
tory, which he founded and most ably edited 
from 1832 to 185 1, his Chrestomathy, and his 
other literary and educational work. 

llri°o n d d ^ n tne secon d period, while the work of Dr. S. 
Chiefly"? Wells Williams reaches back to 1833, it falls 

Canton mainly in the second period. He followed Dr. 
Bridgman as editor of the Chinese Repository 
in 185 1, was secretary of the United States lega- 
tion, and produced The Middle Kingdom, which 
will probably always remain the standard author- 
ity on the Chinese Empire. Dr. Karl Gutzlaff, 
closing in 185 1, at the early age of forty-eight, 
a life of intense activity and surprising erudition, 
has as his noblest memorials the Basel and the 
Rhenish Missionary Societies, formed largely be- 
cause of inspiration which he gave. As suc- 
cessors of Dr. Morrison in the work of the 



Uplifting Leaders 147 

London Missionary Society, Dr. Hobson repre- 
sented the union of medical and evangelistic 
work, Dr. James Legge made Chinese thought 
and the Chinese classics comprehensible to Eng- 
lish readers, and with him must be linked Dr. 
John Chalmers. 

Alexander and John Stronach, arriving in Founders 

J ' & at Amoy 

Amoy in 1844, gave themselves with great earn- 
estness to street preaching, and the latter did 
much to fix the style of the Bible translation 
known as the Delegates' version. 

Stephen Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Peet, and Jus- Be |J^^J 
tus Doolittle carried forward the work of the 
American Board at Fu-chou from 1847; and 
during the same year Judson D. Collins and 
Moses C. White began in the same city the mis- 
sion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which 
has since spread so largely over the whole of 
China Proper. Dr. Stephen L. Baldwin and 
wife, and the Misses Beulah and Sarah Woolston 
entered the field in 1857, reinforcing the work of 
the founders. Virgil C. Hart and wife arriv- 
ing at Fu-chou in 1866, the next year began at 
Chiu-chiang the development which is sending 
its radiance into the three provinces of An-hui, 
Chiang-hsi, and Hu-pei. Twenty years later they 
were called to go far up the Yang-tzu valley to 
reopen the West China Mission, after persecu- 
tion had driven out the early founders in the 
wonderful field of Ssu-ch'uan. Finally when re- 



148 The Uplift of China 

covering from broken health, Dr. Hart led, 
into the heart of Ssu-ch'uan, the mission of the 
Methodist Church in Canada. 

Pi0 Nine-po With the coming of 1842 there was a marked 
opening of the gateway into China, and the 
Rev. Walter M. Lowrie, sent out by the Ameri- 
can Presbyterian Board, entered Canton in that 
year. In June, 1844, Dr. D. B. McCartee, of 
this society, began work at Ning-po, and dis- 
played in his development of the field unusual 
ability and knowledge of China. Dr. Lowrie also 
soon arrived at Ning-po, and Dr. A. J. Happer, 
Mr. French, and Dr. J. G. Kerr were later re- 
inforcements. In 1843, Dr. J. D. Macgowan, 
representing medical work, began in this center 
the mission of the American Baptist Missionary 
Union, which spread widely into the surrounding 
territory and established a hospital. The Church 
Missionary Society of Great Britain had here as 
pioneers the names of Cobbold, Russell, and 
Burdon. 

Workers of A brilliant group of printer-scholars are con- 
Shanghai spicuous among the uplifting workers of China, 
and not least for splendid and beneficent acquire- 
ments shine the names of Medhurst and Muir- 
head, Lockhart and Wylie, at Shanghai, the last 
reviewing in his Notes on Chinese Literature over 
two thousand treatises, and Dr. Lockhart being 
the first to begin medical work at Peking. 
Episcopal Mission operations at Shanghai, for 



Uplifting Leaders 149 

Great Britain and America date from 1844 an d 
1845, Bishop Boone being the American pioneer. 
At Shanghai also was built up the great printing 
and publishing establishment of the American 
Presbyterian Church, and in this marvelously 
growing center of eastern China the work of the 
American Southern Baptist Mission was com- 
menced in 1847, an d the year following that of 
the Southern Methodists, 

The survey closes with the third period, from Third Period 
1877 to the present. Though Dr. Nevius and 
his courageous wife began service as early as 
1853, the most suggestive developments of his 
work, such as station-propagation, self-support, 
and training of converts, appeared after 1877. 
Likewise, the missionary career of J, Hudson 
Taylor, having its quiet and unnoticed begin- 
nings in 1853, culminated in the amazing breadth 
and sweep of the China Inland Mission, until 
at life's close he laid down its leadership in 1905. 
Dr. J. Kenneth Mackenzie left the influence of 
his life and rare devotion in the years from 1876 
to 1888. John Van Nest Talmage, the faithful, 
unheralded worker, built the energy of a life- 
time into the mission of the American Reformed 
Church at Amoy. Griffith John has completed 
a golden half-century of ideal missionary de- 
velopment, until his name is not only supreme 
in the great mid-China field, having its center at 
Han-k'ou, but loved and honored the world 



W 



The Uplift of China 



around; while Dr. William Ashmore, of the 
American Baptist Missionary Union, by more 
than fifty years of remarkably fruitful service, 
has indissolubly linked his name with the diffi- 
cult field of Swatau. 
wonderful Reviewing in detail the life and the achieve- 

Providential '• - , . . . ,, . , . . , , 

pioneers and ments of these pioneers, it is well-nigh inevitable 
to conclude that they have been men of phenom- 
enal type, especially raised up by God to do the 
preliminary work. Consider the educational, the 
literary, the medical, and the evangelistic work 
actually accomplished by Morrison, Milne, Bridg- 
man, Allen, and Martin ; by Williams, Medhurst, 
and Legge ; by Parker, Lockhart, and Kerr ; and 
by Burns, Nevius, Taylor, Baldwin, Talmage, 
Ingle, John, and Ashmore ! The workers die, but 
the work goes on. A long roll-call of native 
leaders, like Liang A-fa, enlisted by Milne, and 
a host of kindred souls in after times, might find 
here fitting memorial. The representatives of 
the women's organizations of the home churches, 
now penetrating co all parts of the empire, are 
deserving of widest commemoration. The great 
army of martyrs, both of missionaries and of 
native Christians, bearing witness by their blood, 
in the face of sword and fire and cruel death, 
have forever consecrated our faith in the eyes 
of China's millions. Let us learn, therefore, 
from this brief survey, what vast results are ac- 
complished by even a few exponents of God's 



Uplifting Leaders 15 1 

outreaching love, and from a contemplation of 
the yet greater tasks remaining, what a trumpet- 
call is sounding for men and women of like spirit 
with those who have gone before to enter into 
and complete their labors, 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER V 

Aim : To Appreciate the Contributions to the Work 
of Some of the Leading Missionaries to China 

1. Why have modern Protestant missions a 
greater right to expect to survive than had the 
Nestorians ? 

2. What does the success of Corvino and Ricci 
indicate as to Chinese character? 

3. Was there as much need at home in 1807 as 
to-day? 

4* Compare the discouragements at home which 
faced Morrison with those of missionary vol- 
unteers to-day 

5 What right had Morrison to expect results? 

6 * Compare the difficulties that faced him on the 

foreign field with those of to-day, 

7 Compare our encouragements with his. 

8.* What sort of preparation should you make for 
translating the Bible for the first time into the 
• language of a non-Christian people? 

9. Ought the first translation to be aimed at the 
taste of the literary class or that of the com- 
mon people? 

10. Should you think it justifiable to have several 
different versions of the Scriptures? 

11. How should you translate. 1 Corinthians IX. 
24 for a nation that does not run races ? 



tI52 The Uplift of China 

12 * What precaution should you take to make sure 
that your translation was thoroughly intel- 
ligible? 

13. Should you trust non-Christian helpers to give 
you words for Christian experiences? 

14. Name several sorts of literature that you think 
pioneer missionaries ought to create. 

15. What are to you the impressive lessons of 
Morrison's life? 

16.* What advantages has medical work over all 
other missionary agencies? 

17. What illustrations should you use in present- 
ing the gospel to those who had come for medi- 
cal treatment? 

18, Do you think a medical missionary ought to 
undertake an operation that seemed likely to 
be unsuccessful? 

. 19. What do you think was the relative value of 
Parker's medical and diplomatic work? 

20. What were Burns' special qualifications as an 
evangelist ? 

21.* What things should you keep in mind in trying 
to master the language for evangelistic work? 

22. What are the relative advantages of wide- 
spread itineration and work in a single place? 

23. Which method do you consider more effective 
for spreading the gospel, that of Burns or of 
Bishop Ingle? 

24. How were their methods affected by the dif- 
ferent circumstances under which they 
worked ? 

25.* What sort of questions should you ask of 

candidates for baptism? 
26* Do you think that Bishop Ingle was justified 

in so strict a standard of discipline? Give 
reasons for your view. 



Uplifting Leaders 153 

27. How large a proportion of your time should 
you give to the time of training native 
helpers ? 

28.* What are the arguments for and against giv- 
ing them responsibility? 

29.* What advantages has the native helper over 
the missionary as a Christian worker? 

30. What principles should you follow in your re- 
lations with fellow missionaries in China? 

31. What lesson "has Bishop Ingle's life for you? 

References for Advanced Study. — Chapter V 
I. Preparation for Missionary Work. 

Bryson : John Kenneth Mackenzie, I, II. 

Burns : Memoir of the Rev. William C. Burns, 

II, IV, X. 

Lovett : James Gilmour of Mongolia, I. 

Mackay : From Far Formosa, I, II, III. 

Stevens : The Life of Peter Parker, II, III, IV. 

Thompson: Griffith John, I. 

Townsend : Robert Morrison, III. 

II. Missionary Call 

Bridgman: The Missionary Pioneer, II. 

Burns : Memoir of the Rev. William C. Burns, XI. 

Gibson : Mission Problems and Mission Methods 

in South China, 312-321. 

Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, 13-15. 

Talmage : Forty Years in China, II. 

Thompson: Griffith John, II. 

III. Learning the Language. 

Lovett: James Gilmour of Mongolia, 327-332. 
Martin : A Cycle of Cathay, III. 
Nevius : John Livingston Nevius, 128-130. 
Soothill: A Typical Mission in China, 27-32. 



154 The Uplift of China 

IV. Prayer and Missions. 

Bryson: John Kenneth Mackenzie, IX. 
Guinness: Story of the China Inland Mission 
Part 2, I. Part 3, IV, XV, XVII. 
Hii Yong Mi : XV, XVI. 
Mateer: Siege Days, XIII. 
Mott: The Pastor and Modern Missions, V. 
Speer: Missionary Principles and Practice, XLI. 
Taylor: Pastor Hsi, XI, XII. 



FORMS OF MISSIONARY WORK 



And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, 
teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel 
of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and 
all manner of sickness. 

— Matthew ix.35. 

Missionary effort in China is organized — as is suc- 
cessful missionary work in all lands — in the departments 
of medicine, evangelistic, literary, and educational 
work. It is carried on with the purpose of giving every 
person in the Chinese Empire a knowledge of the gospel 
as speedily as possible, of leading men and women to a 
personal union with Christ, of building them up in 
Christian character, and of creating as rapidly as pos- 
sible a self-supporting native church. 

—7. W. Bashford. 

Let us bear in mind that the best methods cannot do 
away with the difficulties in our work, which come from 
the world, the flesh, and the devil ; but bad methods 
may multiply and intensify them. For unavoidable 
difficulties we are not responsible; for those which arise 
from disregard of the teachings of Scripture and exper- 
ience we are. Let us also remember that, while in un- 
dertaking the momentous task committed to us, we 
should, by the study of the Scriptures, prayer for divine 
guidance, and comparison of our varied views and ex- 
periences, seek to know what is the best method of 
work, still the best method without the presence of our 
Master and the Spirit of all truth will be unavailing. 
— John Livingston Nevius. 



156 



VI 

FORMS OF MISSIONARY WOKK 

IT is too often forgotten that the words apostle, Apostle and 
and missionary, although one of them is de- 
rived from the Greek and the other from the 
Latin, are in meaning identical. The Book of 
Acts shows how apostolic missionary work was 
done in the first century A. D., and in the twen- 
tieth century its essence remains the same. 

The process by which entrance was obtained The 

. . Evolution of 

into new regions in China was everywhere sub- Mission 
stantially the same. The first stage was that of 
wide and incessant tours of exploration, by means 
of which a fuller knowledge was gained of the 
different provinces, and, what was of scarcely less 
importance, the people became accustomed to the 
sight of foreigners. The temporary headquar- 
ters of the travelers was a boat or an inn. When 
it was intended to attempt a lodgment, the visits 
grew more and more frequent and were more 
protracted. At last the opportunity would come 
to rent a place of some one hard pressed for 
money (a class of which China is full), and then 
trouble would begin. The literati would com- 
plain to the magistrate, who would overtly, or 



158 The Uplift of China 

more frequently covertly, encourage opposition 
until not improbably the bargain had to be an- 
nulled. 
Pe patilSce| Sometimes this unequal contest lasted for 
a< Faith months, sometimes for many weary years, but in 
the end the persistence, patience, tact, and unfail- 
ing faith of the missionaries always won, even 
though their open and secret enemies were in- 
numerable and of the highest rank. In one in- 
stance of this sort, where an American mission 
had been again and again mobbed in a provincial 
capital, — the leader of their opponents being an 
ex-governor of a neighboring province, — and 
where it appeared that nothing could be done 
for them in Peking, the American minister did 
the foreign office (Tsung Li Yamen) a good turn 
in regard to a Continential Power, and the 
Chinese ministers gratefully offering to make 
some return were requested to settle up all out- 
standing cases, — and suitable premises were 
speedily secured. The men and the women who 
did this pioneering in the face of howling mobs, 
often with scarcely a moment of assured respite,, 
are certainly worthy of as much honor as those 
who first subdued the primeval wilderness of 
America in the face of hostile Indians. In some 
instances, however, especially following in the 
wake of relief in time of famine, mission stations 
seemed to be opened with very little outward ob- 



Forms of Missionary Work 159 

struction. Yet it was always true that prejudice 
and passive resistance had to be lived down. 

In the early stages of a mission it is almost im- Care in the 

., , r , , Early Stages 

possible to trust any one, for one soon learns the 
accuracy of the generalization in the schoolboy's 
composition, that " Man is composed of water 
and of avaricious tissue." By degrees a little 
corporal's guard of inquirers gathers about, of 
whose motives it is, however, impossible to be 
sure, and it may be a decade before the first con- 
verts are baptized. 

All Protestant missions make large use of Use of street 

t & Chapels 

street chapels to which everybody is welcome, 
where maps and pictures are hung, explanations 
being constantly given of essential Christian 
truths. By Roman Catholics, however, so far 
as we know, this agency is nowhere employed. 
Sometimes a mob collects and loots or destroys 
the chapel, which sooner or later is rebuilt. 
After a time it becomes an old story and is then 
neglected. 

Visits to other cities and towns, perhaps origi- itineration 
nating in invitations from the curious, the impe- 
cunious, those having " an ax to grind," or the 
genuinely interested, gradually lead to the open- 
ing of new centers. Colporteurs are sent out 
with books to be explained and sold, or perhaps 
loaned, and with tracts to be sold, or in exception- 
al cases given away. The country is so vast and 
the population so dense, that to this form of 



160 The Uplift of China 

work there is literally no end. Some one must 
oversee the budding churches at a distance, and 
thus a system of itinerancy grows up. Mean- 
while, the handful of baptized Christians, the in- 
quirers, and the adherents will not improbably 
be persecuted, at first perhaps in small ways and 
then often with bitterness, being expelled from 
the clan, denied the use of the village well, and 
otherwise boycotted. Such persons must be 
looked after, advised, and encouraged. Thus 
there is evolved the work of a missionary bishop 
or superintendent, 
station At times the colporteurs and some of the more 

Classes r 

receptive inquirers are gathered into classes and 
given fuller instruction, forming the germ of a 
theological seminary, into which it sometimes de- 
velops. Here and there one more intelligent 
than the rest acts as a volunteer preacher, perhaps 
forsaking, or it may be retaining his former oc- 
cupation. 
Work for Work for women by women is an integral part 
of an effective mission station in China — or in- 
deed anywhere. This is begun and carried on 
under even greater hindrances and disabilities 
than other forms of work, because in China there 
is no precedent for the traveling about of unmar- 
ried women, whose position at first inevitably ex- 
poses them to misunderstanding if not to insult. 
Yet in the northeastern part of the Chiang-hsi 
province there is a whole chain of China Inland 



Forms of Missionary Work 161 

Mission stations " manned " altogether by ladies, 
and this in cities where at the time no man could 
have got a foothold, and when there were none 
available. Native pastors superintend the flock, 
which is visited at certain times by the provincial 
superintendent. In another instance, where 
iadies had begun a work in a far western prov- 
ince, the local magistrate when asked to drive 
them out replied, " What does it matter ? They 
are only women !" But at last through a broken- 
down opium smoker, a class to whom mission- 
aries owe much, a shabby place was secured. 
Amid great discomfort, with a total absence of 
privacy, and with constant swarms of curious and 
unsympathetic spectators, the next stage of the 
struggle was entered upon. When foreign ladies 
dress in Chinese costume some of the incidental 
disadvantages are diminished, but the all-preva- 
lent Chinese suspicion is difficult to allay. A 
Chinese woman once remarked of some mission- 
ary ladies whom she had come to know a little, 
that they seemed to be very good people indeed, 
with only one defect, — they did not worship any 
gods ! 

Chinese women can be effectively reached only station 

, mi • . i- i . Classes 

by women. The instruction of the converts is for women 
most essential, yet owing to their poverty, the 
pressure of domestic cares, the servitude to old- 
time custom, and the demands of their parents, 
husbands, children, and relatives, it becomes an 



162 The Uplift of China 

exceedingly difficult task. Women's classes even 
if held for but a short period afford valuable op- 
portunities for instruction, the development of 
Christian character, and particularly for that 
social fellowship of which the lives of most 
Chinese women are painfully destitute. Many 
firm friendships are thus formed, and in these 
modest processes of Christian culture much ad- 
mirable talent is often developed. 
Object- One of the distinct benefits which mission 

Lesson 

of Home work brings to China is the object-lesson (all the 
more impressive because incidental and incon- 
spicuous) of a Christian home, and Christian 
training and education of children. The second 
and third generation of converts have in this way 
received an impulse to introduce a new domestic 
life, the value of which is beyond estimation. 
The touring of women in the interior, though at 
first difficult and sometimes dangerous, is often 
an important part of their work, as soon as little 
companies of Christians begin to be collected in 
outstations. 

M Wor a k A well-equipped mission station will have a 
dispensary and a hospital, the resort of thousands 
from near and from far. Multitudes refuse to 
come until their sufferings are intolerable and 
often incurable. Some come only to die, which 
in the earlier stages of the work may cause 
trouble — perhaps even riots. Medical tours fur- 
nish large opportunities for the promotion of 



Forms of Missionary Work 163 

friendly feeling, and for extending the mission- 
ary sphere of influence. Nowhere is the mission- 
ary more in harmony with the command and the 
example of the Master than when, as he goes, he 
preaches and heals the sick. As a means of dis- 
sipating prejudice, the great advantage of the 
medical work is that it is a permanent agency 
(the sick, like the poor, we have always with us) ; 
that those who come, do so of their own accord, 
and for an object; that they are influenced at a 
most susceptible time; that a single patient may 
not improbably communicate his good impres- 
sions to many others while under treatment, and 
to a much larger number after he is discharged. 
The constant observation of the unselfish and un- 
wearying fidelity of the Christian physician can- 
not fail to attract even the most unimpression- 
able Chinese, for he has never in his life either 
seen or heard of anything like it. Countless 
outstations have been opened through the direct 
and the indirect result of medical work. The 
opportunities of the evangelistic missionary phy- 
sician and of the hospital chaplain are unex- 
celled. 

In addition to other medical work, special at- rP}"™ s 
tention is often paid to the opium habit. Opium 
smokers are the most hopeless class to be found 
in China, because, not only has their physical 
vitality been undermined, but their moral power 
as well, leading at last to a complete paralysis of 



164 The Uplift of China 

the will. Opium, unquestionably the greatest 
curse of the Chinese race, has probably done 
more to destroy it than war, famine, and pesti- 
lence combined. In the province of Shan-hsi it 
is a common saying of the Chinese that " eleven 
out of every ten " are smokers, even women using 
it, and their infant children being lulled to sleep 
with the noxious drug. Yet even there some of 
the best Christian workers have been reclaimed 
from a condition apparently hopeless. 
Worker ^e woes of Chinese medical treatment bear 
Women w ith special hardship on Chinese women. Their 
physical miseries are beyond estimate. The pres- 
ence of an educated Christian medical woman in 
the sick-room, wise and winning, strong and 
sweet, is one of God's best gifts to China. It is 
an interesting circumstance that, in the city 
where Protestant missionary work was first at- 
tempted, after the lapse of almost a century 
(1903), the first woman's medical college in the 
empire was opened, under the care of Drs. Mary 
Fulton and Mary Niles, with a class of thirteen, 
and more applications than could be received. 
The career open to the medically educated 
Chinese young woman is one of great promise 
and vast possibilities. 
Kindergartens The kindergarten has made its appearance late 
in China, but it has come to stay. It is as yet 
seen at its best in Fu-chou. It is encouraging 
that the Chinese themselves, with the assistance 



tforms of Missionary Work 165 

of Japanese teachers, have adopted and are more 
and more introducing the system. As a means of 
utilizing a period of child life which the Chinese 
have for the most part allowed to run abso- 
lutely to waste, and as a means of attracting im- 
mediate attention and commendation on the part 
of uninterested and perhaps semi-hostile out- 
siders, the kindergarten has perhaps no rival. 

In the mission station there will usually be es- Q^° olsfo * 
tablished at an early stage a school for boys. 
The first pupils are any who can be got, but at a 
later period they will be mainly or wholly from 
Christian families, studying under a Christian 
teacher Christian books, as well as the Chinese 
classics. These rudimentary beginnings will 
probably develop into a well-graded system of 
instruction, terminating in a thoroughly equipped 
college. In one station a Manchu lad, virtually 
a beggar, was picked up by a kind-hearted lady 
and educated, becoming a teacher and a preacher, 
the little school meanwhile passing through the 
evolutionary process just mentioned. 

Parallel with the education of the boys, but Education of 

J ' Chinese Girla 

until lately at a great distance to the rear, runs 
the education of Chinese girls, without which 
there can be no true balance in the Church or in 
the home. The beginnings were generally small 
and often most discouraging, yet when the notion 
is once grasped that girls have as good minds 
as boys, and especially when it is comprehended 



166 The Uplift of China 

that even money-wise, it is in the end a good in- 
vestment to teach them, the most conservative 
Chinese begin to give way. The recent change 
of front in the most advanced parts of China in 
regard to the education of women has brought 
the Christian girls' schools and colleges into a 
prominence which a few years ago would have 
been considered impossible. They are an essen- 
tial factor in the coming Christian regeneration 
of China. 
Training One of the most interesting and hopeful forms 
women G f work for Chinese women is the training school, 
into which the pupils — for the most part married 
women — are taken for a series of years, and, as 
in other schools, with fixed terms and vacations. 
Their studies result not only in a general famil- 
iarity with the Old and New Testaments, with 
special reference to imparting their knowledge, 
but perhaps also involve an acquaintance with 
outline geography, and the fundamental rules of 
arithmetic. They are thus enabled to keep their 
own accounts, and they readily command the re- 
spect of those with whom they come in contact. 
It is often a part of the plan to send these future 
Bible-women out into actual work for a year, 
with an experienced companion, to test their 
adaptedness to their new responsibilities, the like 
of which have never before been seen in China. 
These training schools have as yet been more 
fully developed in the Fu-chien province than 



Forms of Missionary Work 167 

elsewhere, but in time they must become univer- 
sal. China will never be profoundly affected un- 
til its women have been profoundly affected. For 
the achievement of this end, perhaps no agency 
more important than training schools for Chris- 
tian women has ever been devised. 

In a country with such highly skilled artificers industrial 
as China, industrial education is conducted under 
much greater difficulties than elsewhere, particu- 
larly in the case of boys. In a few places these 
difficulties have been partly overcome by the in- 
troduction of improved looms for weaving, and 
also by other industries such as carpentering, 
basket-making and the like. Pupils in girls' 
schools sew, spin, weave, make drawn-work, lace, 
embroidery, -and a large variety of articles knit 
with wool. The Roman Catholics, who as a rule 
are excellent practical managers, have always 
made a specialty of industrial work in varied 
forms. Protestants might learn much from them 
in all these directions. 

The doubts which have sometimes been enter- importance <a 

. Educational 

tamed, as to the wisdom of laying so much stress Work 
upon education as most American missions have 
always done, may be said to have passed away. 
The development of colleges rounded out the 
educational system of American missions at a 
time when the very conception of such institu- 
tions was alien to Chinese thought. Now that 
the government is opening them on a large scale, 



168 The Uplift of China 

they become more than ever a necessity for Chris- 
tians. The oldest missionary society in China, 
long reluctant to do so, has recently begun to 
establish advanced schools. Christian youth 
who hold fast to their faith, equipped with a 
knowledge of what China has inherited from the 
past, as well as with the best which the West has 
to bestow, are indispensable for the renovation 
of China. In their education there are great 
dangers and immense possibilities. 
Bible Every missionary in every land is under obli- 

Societies J J J 

gations to the Bible societies which provide for 
the translation, the publication, and the distribu- 
tion of the Scriptures. The British and Foreign 
Bible Society, which was founded in 1804, at 
once directed its attention to China, but its plan 
to publish a translation of a part of the New 
Testament found in the British Museum (the 
one used by Robert Morrison) was relinquished 
when it was ascertained that it would cost ten 
dollars a copy, and that no means existed of cir- 
culating it among the Chinese. In 18 10 the so- 
ciety printed a translation of the Acts, by Mr. 
Morrison, and from that time to the present its 
activity has never ceased. It has published 
many versions in the literary style, in the man- 
darin, as well as in thirteen distinct local dialects, 
four of them printed in roman letters, as well 
as in the Chinese characters, while in two dialects 
editions have been prepared for the blind. It has 



Forms of Missionary Work 169 

also issued the Bible in Mongolian (two ver- 
sions), in Kalmuc, and in Tibetan. 

The system of agencies, sub-agencies, colpor- £ r circufaUo« 
teurs, and Bible-women (of whom for ten years 
the average number has been thirty) constitutes 
a vast business enterprise, covering every part 
of China. The total circulation of Bibles, Testa- 
ments, and portions, from the beginning of the 
society's work to the end of 1905, was 13,246,263 
copies, and it is worthy of notice that the increase 
in the last decade (5,200,908) was but little short 
of the total circulation for the first eighty years. 
This fact suggests the immense influence which 
this single instrumentality has exerted and is now 
yet more exerting for the regeneration of China. 

The American Bible Societv appeared in China American 

~ . . and Scotch 

soon after the first American missionaries societies 
(1834), and like its companion has been active in 
providing the Scriptures for the Chinese, and in 
circulating them widely. Its direct issues for 
1905 were the largest of any year since it began 
work in China, amounting to 625,852 volumes, 
more than 98,000 in excess of any previous year. 
The Scotch Bible Society, organized much later 
than the others, is more free than either of its 
colleagues in allowing its colporteurs to sell Gos- 
pels and tracts together, and in circulating edi- 
tions of the former with copious and much need- 
ed annotations. 



lyo The Uplift of China 

SocSieJ The work of the Bible societies is fitly supple- 
mented and complemented by that of the numer- 
ous tract societies, the principal ones having their 
roots in and receiving their nourishment from the 
great Religious Tract Society of London and the 
American Tract Society. The organizations 
having this work in hand are centered in Shang- 
hai, Han-k'ou, Fu-chou, and other ports, as well 
as in Peking, and in remote Ssu-ch'uan. The 
field of the larger of these societies is not merely 
China itself, vast as it is, but the whole world, 
wherever the Chinese have emigrated. The pro- 
portional increase in the book circulation of some 
of these societies is quite equal to the growth of 
that of the Bible societies just mentioned, while 
the Christian periodicals which they publish are 
essential to the healthy development of the native 
Church. 
Th i?ter i atirS The Christian Literature Society, at first called 
Society ky a different name, was the outgrowth of the 
work of an able and a far-sighted Scotchman, 
Dr. Alexander Williamson, a man of broad gage, 
and wide influence, who prepared many valuable 
books. At his untimely death in 1891, Mr. 
Timothy Richard took the helm of the organiza- 
tion, which aimed to reach and to influence the 
intellect of China by translating the best books 
available, and also by the issue of an influential 
high-grade monthly magazine called The Review 
of the Times, edited by Dr. Young J. Allen. Both 



Forms of Missionary Work 171 

Dr. Richard and Dr. Allen have produced a large 
number of important works which have been read 
in every part of the empire. The Society pub- 
lishes also a monthly magazine for Christian 
readers, as well as a weekly paper, started by 
the Rev. Wm. A. Cornaby. The range of topics 
included in its book translations is wide, — re- 
ligious, historical, biographical, scientific, an- 
thropological, with works on comparative re- 
ligions, and Bloch's Future of War. In the ab- 
sence of a copyright law Chinese publishers have 
paid the society the sincere compliment of pirat- 
ing its works as soon as they appear, and upon 
a large scale, a practise which, while interfering 
with the financial receipts, unquestionably helps 
to carry out the object of the society to diffuse 
knowledge and light. 

The great streams of Christian literature could p ^Jj°J 
not have been circulated without the aid of many 
mission presses, of which the largest is under the 
American Presbyterian mission at Shanghai. It 
has been furnishing Scriptures and Christian 
literature for the Chinese at home, as well as 
for Chinese scattered all over the world. This 
great institution has poured forth Bibles, Gospels, 
books, tracts, and magazines, sometimes at the 
rate of 90,000,000 pages per annum. The 
consolidated mission press of the American Meth- 
odists is also in Shanghai, and others are to be 
found in various parts of China, many of them 



172 The Uplift of China 

overworked and all of them busy. By their aid, 
the romanization of the dialects of China has 
been made effective in bringing to millions who 
can never learn to read the complicated char- 
acters, knowledge which else would have been 
unattainable. The same plan is now adopted 
with the widely spread mandarin, although under 
special difficulties and as yet with but partial suc- 
cess. It is a remarkable fact to which the Chinese 
are not as yet awake, that practically all the 
labor expended to make their language more 
serviceable to the needs of the people owes its 
origin to foreigners. 1 
\. Th « The first missionary conference appointed a 
Association committee to prepare text-books for schools. At 
the second conference further steps were taken 
which resulted in the formation of the Educa- 
tional Association of China. This has been an 
important agency in unifying the action of those 
engaged in educational work, both by its publi- 
cations, of which it has a considerable list, and 
by the discussions and action at its triennial meet- 
ings, of which the fifth was held in Shanghai in 
May, 1905. It is important in the present con- 
dition of education in China that this Associa- 
tion .should have a permanent secretary and 
greatly extend the scope of its activities. 

1 Within the last two years, however, a system of initials 
and finals represented by arbitrary characters has been invented 
by a Chinese scholar, and by its aid many have learned ta read 
in a wonderfully brief period. 



Forms of Missionary Work 173 

The new conditions in China have opened to Lectures 
missionaries many avenues of influence hereto- 
fore closed. Public addresses on subjects now 
of general interest have become widely popular 
from Shanghai to Ssu-ch'uan, and from Canton 
to Peking. In the latter city a chapel of the 
American Board has for some time been used as 
a lecture hall, at which, on different days, both 
men and women have been instructed in current 
events, and many other topics, such as history, 
geography, hygiene, coal, and education. 
Princesses have attended these lectures, and one 
of them, the wife of a Mongol prince, gave an ac- 
count of her tribulations in trying to introduce 
the education of girls among the Mongols, il- 
lustrating her success by exhibiting several of her 
pupils. A Manchu duke, a nephew of the em- 
press dow r ager, gave an address on filial piety. 
The editor of a Peking daily and the editor of a 
Chinese woman's journal, herself deeply inter- 
ested in the subject, have given lectures, and 
have commended the plan in their papers. As 
an opportunity to reach the hitherto inaccessible 
but now intellectually alert higher classes, these 
openings are invaluable. 

A cognate but more permanent form of in- Museums 
fluence is that of museums combined with lec- 
tures. Probably the best example of this is 
found in the work of the English Baptist Mis- 
sion in Shan-tung. Nearly twenty years ago 



174 The Uplift of China 

this was begun in Ch'ing-chou, and more recently 
on a far larger scale in Chi-nan, the capital. The 
buildings are throughout Chinese in style. A 
model of a foreign cemetery affords opportunity 
to explain Western ideas as to regard for the 
dead, without attacking (or even mentioning) an- 
cestral worship. Models of St. Paul's Cathedral, 
the Capitol at Washington, and other famous 
structures convey a realistic notion of Occidental 
architecture. Stuffed birds, animals, mounted 
fishes, huge globes, orreries, electrical machines, 
model railways, and dredging machines silently 
dispel darkness and prejudice. Large colored 
charts, showing for different countries their rela- 
tive railway mileage, tonnage of merchant ves- 
sels, the output of gold, silver, iron, coal, and 
other products, in all of which China is repre- 
sented only by a thin yellow line at the bottom, 
convince as arguments could never do. A young 
Confucianist, who came to scoff, retired after a 
protracted visit to remark to his uncle (an of- 
ficial) : "Why, the only thing that China is 
ahead in is population!" This important insti- 
tution, which from its inception has been under 
the charge of the Rev. J. S. Whitewright, has in 
the course of twenty years received more than 
a million visits, of which 247,000 were made 
during 1906. No better way of attracting edu- 
cated and official China has ever been devised. 



Forms of Missionary Work 175 

The great famine, which in the years 1877-78 Famine Relic 
overspread all the northern provinces of China, 
proved to be a wonderful opening through which 
to pierce the rough and forbidding exterior of 
Chinese prejudice. A large staff of mission- 
aries, with a few from the customs service, per- 
sonally administered the funds in the distressed 
districts. Four missionaries died of fever and 
overwork, one of whom was honored by the 
governor of Shan-hsi with a public funeral. In 
the famine of 1907, which affected about 
4,000,000 persons, missionaries again rendered 
heroic service. Famine relief unostentatiously 
and wisely conducted proves a golden key to 
unlock many closed doors. 
. Asylums or villages for lepers have been es- special 
tablished in five different provinces, where excel- Asyfuma 
lent work has been done. There are eight 
orphanages (one of them in Hongkong, but con- 
ducted by missionaries to the Chinese) caring for 
a great number of children — mostly girls. 
Eleven schools or asylums for the blind — the 
best known being that of Mr. Murray in 
Peking — are working what the Chinese justly re- 
gard as daily miracles, rescuing from uselessness 
and worse a class hitherto quite hopeless. A 
school for deaf-mutes conducted by Mrs. Mills in 
Chef 00, is an object-lesson in what may be done 
in that wide field. An asylum for the insane be- 
gun under great difficulties by the late Dr. J. G. 



176 The Uplift of China 

Kerr at Canton is likewise a pioneer in caring for 
a numerous but hitherto neglected class. 
Peo°S?s ^he pl an °f organizing the young people has 
societies b een adopted by nearly every mission in China. 
It is recognized as a most useful method of train- 
ing new converts to become strong and aggres- 
sive Christians. For large conventions the 
Chinese have an especial aptitude. As an evi- 
dence to the world of the earnestness and the 
enthusiasm of the body of young Christians and 
as a stimulus to the spirit of unity, great gather- 
ings are quite as impressive as in the United 
States and Canada and much more valuable, 
^"christian ^ n res P onse to invitations representing the mis- 
Association sionary body, the Young Men's Christian . As- 
sociation entered China in 1895. Since its in- 
ception it has made rapid progress both among 
the young men in the cities and among the stu- 
dents in the institutions of learning. In the 
larger Chinese cities the Young Men's Christian 
Association has a peculiar value as a middle- 
ground between Christians and influential non- 
Christian Chinese, who are often quite ready to 
become associate members, assisting with friend- 
ly counsel and with financial backing. In Chris- 
tian schools the association combines Christian 
students into a compact organization with wide 
affiliations. It affords an opportunity for the ex- 
pression of the personal Christian life of the stu- 
dent, and gives scope and training for aggres- 



Forms of Missionary Work 177 

sive work. It organizes and stimulates Bible 
study, and brings to every individual the call to 
service for others. In wholly non-Christian in- 
stitutions where no other avowedly Christian in- 
fluence could penetrate at all, the Young Men's 
Christian Assocation has sometimes been wel- 
comed as soon as it was understood, for its social 
and its moral advantages. In these directions it 
has in China an unlimited field for usefulness. 

In view of the completion of a century of Memorial 

* -'to Morrison 

Protestant missions, the Canton Missionary Al- 
liance has undertaken to collect funds to the 
amount of $100,000 for the erection of a build- 
ing which is to be under the charge of the 
Young Men's Christian Association of the port 
in which Protestant mission work was first begun. 
There are at present 2J foreign and 15 Chinese 
secretaries engaged in the China work. 

At the urgent invitation of the National Com- Among 

t « 1 China'* 

mittee of Japan, work was begun by the secre- young Men 
taries of the Chinese Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation (and others) among the 16,000 or 
more Chinese students in that country under 
somewhat abnormal and morally perilous condi- 
tions. This has been conducted by relays of 
workers from China, both Chinese and foreign, 
developing with great rapidity and with many 
signs of promise of large and permanent useful- 
ness, since these students must eventually occupy 
influential positions in their own land. Many 



178 The Uplift of China 

hundreds of them have attended the classes, and 
not a few have openly avowed their determina- 
tion to live a Christian life. 
T W<£?"n 1 The Young Women's Christian Association has 
AsfociJtioS but recently reached China, and has at present 
three representatives. The first of these (Miss 
Martha Berninger) began work among the 
women and girls employed in the numerous 
steam-mills in and about Shanghai. The number 
of such operatives is estimated at more than 
30,000, and, including those working in match 
factories, and other trades, may reach 40,000. 
Several Young Women's Christian Associations 
already exist in schools for girls, which will be 
developed upon lines similar to those of the 
Young Men's Christian Association. 
indis Ti enMbie ^ vaI "i etv °f religious organizations have 
passed the pioneering stage, and are now firmly 
established. Notwithstanding the reform move- 
ments, Christianity still remains the indispens- 
able agent for the adequate mental, physical, 
social, moral, and spiritual renovation of China, 
touching the nation at every vital point. Diplo- 
macy and commerce have limited fields and nar- 
rowness of purpose ; while Christianity, being 
many-sided, has unlimited scope for its multi- 
plied activities, and has for its objective the 
strengthening of every weak spot in the equip- 
ment of the Chinese. 



Forms of Missionary Work 179 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI 

Aim : To Realize the Challenge to the Church to 
Make the Most of the Agencies That Have 
Been Created 

1. Has the work of foreign missions fulfilled its 
duty to a Chinese when it has proclaimed the 
gospel to him? 

2. To what extent is it responsible for influencing 
his attitude? 

3. If your brother were not a Christian, should 
you consider your duty to him discharged 
when you had once plainly stated to him the 
way of salvation? 

4. Have foreign missions fulfilled their duty to a 
Chinese when he has professed conversion? 

5.* When is the work of foreign missions consid- 
ered to be complete in any country? 

6. By what persons do you expect the bulk of the 
Chinese race ultimately to be led to Christ? 

7.* How ought this expectation to affect our 
methods of work? 

8.* Why are results so small in the first stages of 
missionary work in any country? 

9. In your opinion, what agencies exert in Chris- 
tian lands the greatest power in developing 
Christian growth? 

10. How many of these agencies w T ere present in 
the first period of mission work in China? 

11. What do you estimate as the relative amounts 
of Christian influences then in circulation in 
China and in Christian America? 

12. Describe the methods that the evangelistic mis- 
sionary uses to present the gospel to the people 
directly. 



180 The Uplift of China 

13 * Sum up the principal obstacles that he has to 

encounter at first. 

14 * How should you begin your address to a 

curious crowd in a street chapel ? 
15.* How should you treat those who professed 
interest ? 

16. What is the special value of training schools 
for women? 

17. Arrange the agencies for overcoming prejudice 
in what you consider the order of their im- 
portance. 1 

18. What general rules should the evangelist fol- 
low in order to overcome popular prejudice? 

19. What is the special value of schools for the 
blind? 

20. Are foreign mission boards justified in main- 
taining such institutions as asylums for the 
insane ? 

21. Arrange in what you consider, the order of 
their effectiveness the agencies for presenting 
the gospel. 

22.* What are the relative advantages of itinera- 
tion, hospitals, and boarding schools, as agen- 
cies for presenting the gospel? 

23 * How should you conduct a hospital and dis- 
pensary to make it of the greatest spiritual 
value ? 

24. Which three agencies do you think contribute 
most to the edification of converts? 

25. Which three count for most in training 
workers ? 

26.* Which agencies will help the native church 
most in the matter of self-extension? 



1 To answer such questions to the best advantage a list of 
the agencies should be written out, so that they can be all under 
the eye at once. 



Forms of Missionary Work 181 

27.* Which most in the matter of self-government? 
28* Which most in the matter of self-support? 
29. Does the multiplication of methods of work 

that we have in Christian countries seem to you 

to be necessary? 
30 Have we all the methods which you think we 

ought to have? 

31. If this variety of method is necessary at home, 
ought we to expect t<> build up a strong Chris- 
tian Church in non-Christian lands without it? 

32. How ought we to expect the results of mis- 
sionary work before these agencies have been 
created to compare with results afterwards? 

33. What responsibility does this lay upon us to 
see that the agencies are maintained in effective 
operation? 

34.* If you had $10,000 to invest in some one form 
of mission work in China, where should you 
place it at present to secure the greatest good? 

35.* If an all-round man just graduating from col- 
lege should ask you how he could be of most 
use in China, what should you tell him to do? 

36* What should you tell an all-round woman un- 
der similar circumstances? 

37. How much money and how many volunteers do 
you think could be profitably used in China just 
now? 

38. What call does the variety of present oppor- 
tunities for service in China bring to you? 

References for Advanced Study. — Chapter VI 

I. Educational. 

Beach: Dawn on the Hills of Tang, 112-115. 
Graves : Forty Years in China, XIII. 
Ross: Mission Methods in Manchuria, X. 



182 The Uplift of China 

Soothill: A Typical Mission in China, XII. 
Speer: Missionary Principles and Practice, XIX. 
Wallace : The Heart of Sz-chuan, VII. 

II. Medical. 

Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, no, in. 
Bryson: John Kenneth Mackenzie, 396-404. 
Graves : Forty Years in China, XIV. 
Mackay: From Far Farmosa, XXXIII. 
Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, X. 
Stevens : The Life of Peter Parker, VII, VIII. 
Wallace : The Heart of Sz-chuan, VI. 

III. Evangelistic. 

Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 1 17-120. 
Gibson : Mission Problems and Mission Methods 
in South China, VI. 

Ross : Mission Methods in Manchuria, III, IV. 
Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, III. 
Wallace : The Heart of Sz-chuan, V. 

IV. Literary. 

Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 116, 117. 
Graves : Forty Years in China, XV. 
Soothill: A Typical Mission in China, XIII. 
Thompson: Griffith John, XIII, XVII. 

V- Work for Women. 

Henry: The Cross and the Dragon, XV. 
McNabb: The Women of the Middle Kingdom, 
VII, VIII. 

Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, IX. 
Wallace: The Heart of Sz-chuan, VIII. 



MISSIONARY PROBLEMS 



188 



Will the Republic endure? Who can tell? Thought- 
ful observers are not yet sure that the American Re- 
public will endure. The mob and "the man on horse- 
back" are always in the background of every republic. 
China is far better fitted for republican institutions 
than the Philippine Islands or the Mexican, Central 
American, and South American Republics. Her people 
are more stable, peaceable, and law-abiding in tem- 
perament, their respect for constituted authority is 
greater, and the government of their local communities 
has long been more largely democratic in character. 

Nevertheless, the diffusion of those fundamental 
ideas of education and religion upon which popular 
government must rest has been a matter of only a few 
decades in China. Vast numbers of the people have 
as yet been but slightly touched by them. Multitudes 
who have received the external forms of Western 
civilization and government have not yet adopted the 
Christian basis of morals which guarantees the wise 
use of wider opportunity. The spirit of loyalty as 
against other nations is strong, but the sense of unity 
between the widely separated parts of the country is 
still weak. —Arthur J. Brown. 

The whole world is agreed in recognizing in the 
transformation of China one of the greatest movements 
in human history. Whether we consider the immensity 
of the population affected, the character of the change 
that is taking place, the magnitude of the interests 
which are involved, the comparative peacefulness of 
the crisis, or the significance of the act that a great 
and ancient race is undergoing in the period of a 
decade a radical intellectual and spiritual readjustment, 
it is evident that it is given to us to witness and have 
part in a vast movement whose consequences will 
affect the whole world and be unending. 

— Robert E. Speer. 

184 



CHAPTER VII 
MISSIONARY PROBLEMS 1 
np HERE has always been more or less mis- How Far china 






Is Tolerant 



conception in regard to the degree of tol- 
eration accorded by the Chinese government to 
foreign religions. It is, of course, true that a 
peaceful and pragmatic people like the Chinese 
have not the instinct of persecution, but it is also 
true, as Dr. De Groot has shown by copious trans- 
lations from a wide range of Chinese documents, 
that whenever the government has feared that 
Confucianism was endangered, persecution bitter 
and relentless has been the rule and not the ex- 
ception. Of this fact the whole history of Chris- 
tianity in China is itself an evidence, for it has 
been felt that Christianity and Confucianism 
were in some points, especially that of ancestor- 
worship, contradictories, and ancestor-worship 
may be said to be the real religion of the Chinese 
people. 

An impression has prevailed among foreigners §55JJJ}p$ d 

1 The present revision (March, igia) of this chapter has the dis- Liberty 
advantage of being written at a distance from China and at a time 
of such rapid transition that it is difficult to determine along just 
what line the chief future problems of mission work in China are to 
lie. The object is not to give a general survey of all those problems, 
but rather to fix attention upon a few of the more salient ones 
which are especially characteristic of the new China. 

185 



186 The Uplift of China 

familiar with China that in the coming general 
progress of the Empire religious liberty would 
probably by small increments come to be con- 
ceded eventually, mainly for the reason that the 
Chinese have become increasingly sensitive to 
any apparent inferiority as compared with West- 
ern nations, among many of which religious 
liberty has long been domesticated. 
TheR Brings ti aS But the sudden success of the Chinese Revolu- 
Imm £i e t tion has completely altered the outlook. The 
hopes and the prayers of three generations of 
Protestant missionaries and of many centuries 
of those of the Roman Catholic Church are about 
to be fulfilled. We are on the threshold of re- 
ligious liberty for China ! 
Riewirt Event? The following narrative of recent events in 
the capital of China will give the warrant for this 
prediction. It is taken from a dispatch sent to 
the American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions in Boston from one of its mis- 
sionaries in Peking. 
Re P re«entltiJes Shortly after the edict of abdication was an- 
Received^bythe nonnce ^ tne native pastors of the Protestant 
churches of Peking conceived the idea of holding 
a union thanksgiving service. To this service 
they wished to invite the President of the new 
republic. When invited, President Yuan met them 
more than half way, saying that he was desirous 
of an interview with them. Accordingly, four 
Chinese pastors, representing the Presbyterian, 



Missionary Problems 187 

Methodist, and Congregational missions, carried 
in person their invitation. They were received 
with all the honors accorded the highest repre- 
sentatives of foreign powers, the soldiers saluting 
them as they would the minister of the United 
States or Great Britain. / 

They were escorted into a large hall with statement of 
foreign furnishings. Here the President met them Yuaa 
with assurances of his pleasure in receiving them. 
He told them repeatedly that under the new 
regime they might expect perfect freedom of 
worship. He intimated that so far as he under- 
stood the principles of Christianity they were 
what he was striving for in the new government. 
He requested them to pass on his word regarding 
religious liberty to the pastors and Christians 
in the country, and to explain to them the prin- 
ciples of the republic. Although he could not 
accept their invitation in person, he promised to 
send a representative to carry his message to 
the Church. 

The thanksgiving service was held in the xSSSSvfn* 
largest church in the city on the afternoon of Service 
February 26. Although admission was by ticket, 
long before the hour set for the meeting the 
church was crowded with a company of intelli- 
gent men and women, eager and enthusiastic, and 
this in Peking, which but a few days ago was 
the seat of Manchu authority. One of the Chris- 
tian pastors who led in praise of the republic is 



188 The Uplift of China 

himself a Manchu. The church was resplendent 
in flags and bunting and mottoes, the striped flag 
of the new government holding the conspicuous 
place. The Chinese band of Sir Robert Bredon, 
of the Chinese customs service, enlivened the 
occasion with stirring music. The climax was 
the message of the new President. This was 
read both in English and Chinese by Dr. Yen, 
a member of the Wai Wu Pu (Board of Foreign 
Control). Dr. Yen is a graduate of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, a member of the Hanlin 
Academy, and for a time was president of the 
North China American College Club, and is a 
Christian. As a special tribute of respect to his 
Christian subjects, Yuan telegraphed Dr. Yen to 
come from Tientsin, that one of his Christian 
officials might convey his message to the Christian 
Church. 
Message ofthe The message of President Yuan to his Chris- 
tian subjects was as follows : 
conveyedby 'The Chinese Christians of the Protestant 

Dr. Yen 

churches in Peking hold to-day a union meeting 
to celebrate the establishment of a republican 
form of government in China and to thank God 
that North China has been delivered from the 
horrors of war. You have courteously invited 
President Yuan Shih-k'ai to attend the meeting, 
an invitation which he highly appreciates. But 
at the present moment, when the old government 
machinery is being replaced by the new, there 



Missionary Problems 189 

are a thousand and one things which occupy the 
time of the President, who has few moments at 
his own disposal. He is unable to come to-day, 
and has commanded me to represent him at this 
meeting and to make a few remarks on his 
behalf. 

" Protestant Christianity entered the Orient pJSgJJJS* 
from the Occident over a century ago. The prog- Jcentury* 7 f ° r 
ress of the Church has been slow and difficult, 
partly because China was conservative in the 
olden days and regarded anything new with dis- 
trust and suspicion, and partly because the mis- 
sionaries speaking a foreign language could not 
make their cause clearly understood. In the past 
few years the spirit of reform prevailed among 
our scholars, who devoted their attention to 
Western learning, as well as to Western relig- 
ions. Thus gradually the objects and policy of 
Christians became known. 

"Moreover, the different missions have Missfols°fn 
achieved much success both in works of charity Jnd KfiSKon 
and in educational institutions. On the one hand 
they have conferred many favors on the poor 
and the destitute, and on the other they have 
carefully trained up many talented young men. 
For doing both they have won golden opinions 
from all classes of society. The reputation of 
Christian missions is growing every day, and 
the prejudice and the misunderstanding which 
formerly existed between the Christian and the 



190 The Uplift of China 

non-Christian has gradually disappeared, which 
will surely prove to be for the good of China. 
Pr ^ p !«?T« "On account of the fact that Christian mis- 

Change in 

Arrangements s } ons f orm a subject of treaty arrangement, they 
often take on a diplomatic aspect. It is not 
necessary to discuss here whether such arrange- 
ments were in former days indispensable or not, 
but it is evident that they must change in order 
to suit present conditions. Many Chinese Chris- 
tians, realizing the modification of circumstances 
and desiring to remove every vestige of differ- 
ence between Christians and non-Christians, have 
advocated the independence of the Church, so 
as to divest it of all political significance. We 
must admit that they are far-seeing and they 
suggest a proper basis for the future of Chris- 
tian missions. They are prompted by love of 
Church as well as of country. 
F °Art£ieon "^° l° n g> however, as the constitution of the 
R Liberty countr y nas not Deen promulgated and the 
article guaranteeing religious freedom has not 
been formally published, it would hardly be wise 
or proper to contemplate a revision of the articles 
relating tO Christian missions. By the grace of 
heaven, the Republic of China is an accomplished 
fact, and in the articles of favorable treatment 
the Manchus, Mongols, Mohammedans, and 
Tibetans have been assured of their religious 
liberty, establishing for the first time in Chinese 
history a precedent for religious liberty. When 



Missionary Problems 191 

the National Assembly meets and the new con- 
stitution is drawn up, we can be assured that 
such an article will be embodied, to include the 
other great religions of the world. Thenceforth 
all obstacles to the liberty of conscience will have 
been removed from the Republic of China; the 
five peoples of China will enjoy the blessings of 
republican institutions, and the distinction be- 
tween Christians and non-Christians will dis- 
appear forever. Members of one great family, 
with one heart and one soul, we shall all exert 
ourselves to promote the strength and prosperity 
and the happiness of the Republic of China." 

In former editions Of this book the first mis- New Treaty- 
Regulations 

sionary problem discussed was the treaty rights Expected 
of Chinese Christians, which have always been 
to missionaries a source of more or less per- 
plexity and anxiety. The time is now approach- 
ing when the Chinese people will repeat the ex- 
perience of the Japanese in demanding and in 
obtaining the recession of the right of extra- 
territoriality which has sheltered both foreigners 
and their interests, to some extent including the 
Christian Church. In view of the many deli- 
cate interests involved, this recession cannot, of 
course, take place until the Chinese have demon- 
strated their ability honestly and impartially to 
administer justice. If that time has seemed to 
be remote and out of all relation to practical 
politics, so also did the ejection of the Manchu, 



192 The Uplift of China 

which is already accomplished, and the one 
achievement is the forerunner of the other. 
chiSsl p c*hureh ^ n advance °f tne meeting of the National 
to be Tested Assembly by which this important subject and 
a multitude of others must be considered and 
acted upon, it is vain to hazard conjectures. But 
one thing is clear. The position of the Christian 
Churches in China will be radically different 
from that heretofore occupied. In this "thauma- 
trope," or whirl of wonders, it is evident that 
the Chinese Church is to be put to a test before 
unknown. Can it suddenly adapt itself to its 
new privileges and opportunities without losing 
its spiritual character and without becoming on 
the one hand merely or mainly a patriotic society 
with an honorable history, and on the other an 
organization of prestige and influence which 
may be "worked" for ends largely secular and 
selfish? That such adaptation is quite possible 
we are assured. Yet the temptations and the 
perils of the new status are sufficiently evident. 
In the address just quoted, delivered by Dr. 
Yen in the name of Yuan, the President of the 
republic, cordial reference is made to the inde- 
pendent Chinese Church, which has now for 
some years been the goal to which many Chris- 
tians in China have been moving. 
w7ak2es. n o d f In several different centers such churches 
independeat j iave a i rea dy appeared, and with the growing 
national consciousness they have become increas- 






Missionary Problems 193 

ingly popular. Their advantages and their dan- 
gers are obvious. They will form strong and 
important centers of union, developing along 
lines of least resistance. Their "independence" 
may become simply independence of foreign con- 
trol, with a possible leaning toward some other 
strong support to replace the one which has been 
given up. Will the independent Chinese Church 
have sufficient anchorage in a deep Christian 
experience and a sufficient grasp of the essentials 
of divine truth to enable it to resist the sudden 
and probably enervating change of climate which 
seems imminent ? Can the Church be transplanted 
from sub-arctic to sub-tropic regions without 
losing its vitality? 

A general loosening of religious conviction £ei°i|k?Bs S ° f 
among the Chinese people has been a prominent Convlctlon 
characteristic of the last decade in China. How 
far can this process go without dissolving the 
foundations of Chinese social order? 

It is not impossible that before many years JJSts^kdyto 
there may be in China considerable mass move- ° ccur 
ments toward nominal Christianity. Phenomena 
of this sort have been very common in India. 
It is true that, unlike India, China has in form 
no system of caste, but the large and at present 
quite unassimilated bodies of the various Miao 
tribes scattered so widely and so numerously 
through southwestern China, stand in much the 
same relation to the Chinese population as the 



Needs of 
Mohammedan 



194 The Uplift of China 

lower caste in India do to the higher caste. If 
such mass movement toward Christianity should 
occur, what will be its effect upon the Chinese 
themselves, and upon the many millions of 
aboriginal tribes? That the consequences from 
a political and sociological point of view would 
be most serious there can be no doubt. 

According to the very moderate estimates of 

population Mn Marshall Broomhall's Islam in China, the 
Mohammedan population cannot be less than 
ten million and may be much greater. What is 
to be their future? As yet scarcely any work 
has been undertaken in their behalf. What 
duties toward them do the Chinese Christians 
owe? And what are the responsibilities toward 
them of Christians in the lands from which 
Christianity has come to China? 

Leadership How can leaders of the Christian Church in 
China be raised up in numbers at all adequate 
to the need ? How can the little band of ordained 
Chinese pastors be multiplied? Unless these 
great problems can in some way be met the 
Christian Church cannot lead among an educated 
people like the Chinese. 

Problem of A further problem is that of education. The 

Education r 

new departure Of the Chinese government in 
educational lines put an end to the practical 
monopoly of Western learning on the part of 
mission schools. Free tuition and sometimes the 
payment of most or all of the other expenses 



Missionary Problems 195 

by the state would seem to make competition 

hopeless; but from the absence of true normal 

schools and from many other causes the teaching 

standards of the former must remain for some 

time below the standards of the latter. 

The whole government school system of China Evils of Govern. 
, , Jr . r * . . r , ment School 

has been suffering from ambitiousness of plan System 

and meagerness of suitable material with which 
to carry it out. Too much has been attempted. 
The number of teachers has been at times ab- 
normally small and not infrequently they have 
been without pedagogical knowledge or experi- 
ence, and at times positively unqualified or 
disqualified. Though the superintendents of 
education have sometimes been able and zealous 
men, yet they have been hampered by official 
routine and red tape, their best efforts being 
largely without adequate result. On the other 
hand, high educational positions have been often 
abused to enrich the incumbent, regardless of 
consequences, thus bringing the new learning 
into undeserved disrepute. At times totally in- 
competent men have been placed in the office 
of general superintendent or educational com- 
missioner. 

These and manv other evils have led to great Lack of 

J . ° Organization 

dissatisfaction on the part of foreign expert and Discipline 
teachers, engaged at high salaries, who have ' 
found themselves assigned to rudimentary tasks 
or sometimes left without any occupation at all. 



196 The Uplift of China 

For this reason many such teachers have re- 
signed their positions. In general there has been 
an unwillingness and often an incapacity to 
enforce discipline upon students who have at 
times demanded as a right light tasks and high 
marks. They have boycotted and driven away 
teachers against whom they had a prejudice. 
They have gone out on "sympathetic strikes" 
so that many schools have been temporarily and 
some permanently broken up. In some instances 
the scholars have behaved with ostentatious 
rudeness and defiance in the presence of the 
highest officials of the provincial government. 
Because some of these students were connected 
with official families they seem as a rule to have 
been left to do as they pleased. Not all. govern- 
ment schools have been on this level, yet there 
is evidence that in all parts of China many 
schools have been so. We must assume that 
under the new order of things all this is to be 
gradually but radically changed. 
^MUaionary -"- n ^ e mean time the problem of missionary 
Education education in China becomes at every step graver 
and more complicated. Some of the evils already 
mentioned in government schools have been met 
with in missionary schools also. It is more and 
more obvious that the government standard of 
education, whatever it may be, is one below 
which mission schools must not fall, that it is 
desirable to approximate as nearly as practicable 



Missionary Problems 197 

to the government curriculum and for conve- 
nience in securing attendance at conventions, 
conferences, and the like, the terms and the vaca- 
tions of mission schools should coincide with 
those of government schools. With the adoption 
of the Western calendar by the Chinese govern- 
ment this ought not to be difficult of arrange- 
ment. 

The government schools have behind them the Tw^iy/tlm* 
revenues of an imperial republic, ambitious to 
do its best to reform the countless evils of the 
past and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the 
rest of the world. The mission schools on the 
contrary have behind them only such appropria- 
tions as may be made from missionary treasuries 
subject to high and to low tides — more especially 
the latter. Their principal assets are their gradu- 
ates, their extended experience, a corps of self- 
denying men and women intent only upon bene- 
fiting China by their teaching, and the good-will 
of the people among whom they have been long 
established. 

The only way in which mission schools in 2ec!sVve a Factor 
China of whatever grade from the kindergarten 
to the university can hope to compete with gov- 
ernment institutions is by doing better work 
than they do, and this result must be so conspicu- 
ously true as to be obvious to discerning Chinese, 
who when unprejudiced are excellent judges of 
fact. 



Educational 
Union 



198 The Uplift of China 

It has long been evident to the missionary body 
in China that such a result can be achieved in 
no other way than by an effective educational 
union of missionary forces. In the reconstruc- 
tion following the Boxer cataclysm there began 
in and about Peking such a drawing together 
of missionary forces as resulted in a compara- 
tively short time in the formation of the North 
China Educational Union. This originated in a 
deliberate and definite cooperation between the 
four leading Protestant missions in Peking — the 
London Mission, the American Board, the 
American Presbyterian, and the American Meth- 
odist, joined to some extent at a later time by 
the Church of England Mission. As the result 
of this alliance there are now six distinct union 
institutions cooperated in by two, three, four, 
or more missions as follows : 

1. Union Arts College at Tung-chou (12 miles 
east of Peking). 

2. A Union Women's College at Peking. 

3. Union Theological College at Peking. 

4. Union Medical College at Peking. 

5. Union Woman's Medical College at Peking. 

6. Union Academy for Girls in Pao-ting fu. 
of r unifed a w P ork This organic union, achieved not without diffi- 
culty, is so obviously in the interests of efficiency 
that no one would for a moment consider a 
return to the old ways. The complete wreck of 
every kind of mission plant in 1900 was in the 



Missionary Problems 199 

providence of God the means of bringing about 
this important result, which exemplifies and on 
a large scale proves the essential unity of the 
Christian Church in spite of its differences. 
In the great province of Ssu-ch'uan on the other 
hand, the minimum estimate of the population 
of which is forty-five millions, and the maximum 
estimate from seventy to eighty millions, a differ- 
ent and more extended type of union was ac- 
complished as an incident of normal growth. Mis- 
sion work in that province was interrupted by a 
riot in the middle eighties, by the war with 
Japan in 1894-5, and again five years later by 
the Boxer cyclone. These calamities drew all 
the missions together in a fellowship of suffer- 
ing which resulted in the formation of the West 
China Educational Union, embracing all the 
Protestant societies working in the three great 
provinces of Ssu-ch'uan, Yun-nan, Kuei-chou. 
There is a delimitation of territory, an efficient 
advisory board, and a common curriculum and 
common examinations for all the schools from 
the primary up to an impending university. This 
instance can be commended as a fit example to 
be studied in detail, as exhibiting common sense 
applied to all forms of mission work in a new 
field. 

Other cases of union in academies, arts colleges, 
theological colleges, and medical colleges are 
now to be found scattered all over the provinces 



Further Cases 
of Union 



200 The Uplift of China 

of China, and they have become so numerous 
as to be recognized as the normal trend in edu- 
cational development* The great and rapidly 
expanding Young Men's Christian Association 
and Young Women's Christian Association, 
whose work is of the utmost value in the evolu- 
tion of the new China, are of themselves con- 
vincing examples of the benefit of interdenomi- 
national and international cooperation. 
Successive When in the sixth century of our era the Nes- 

Chnstian J 

Mutually tormns came into China from the West, they 
Hostile me f- a singularly favorable reception at the hands 
of the emperors of the Tang dynasty, at a time 
when China was the most civilized country in 
the world. It is remarkable that we know so 
little of their doctrines, their methods, or their 
success. The famous Nestorian tablet, acci- 
dently unearthed in Hsi-an fu, in the year 1625, 
still remains the only tangible memorial of their 
presence in China. But we do know that when 
the early Roman Catholic missionaries came to 
China in the Yuan dynasty (thirteenth century) 
they were persecuted by the Nestorians who are 
mentioned by Marco Polo. The Jesuits, who 
had come into China in the sixteenth century, 
in their turn persecuted the Protestant pioneer 
Robert Morrison and his successors. In the 
eyes of the world the divisions of Christianity, 
whatever justification they may have had or 
may still have, have always been its reproach. 



Missionary Problems 201 

The century or more of Protestant missions unity instead 

J of Neutrality 

has been characterized by a period of hostility 
between them and the Roman Catholics and of 
neutrality among the different denominations 
toward one another, which, as we have seen, is 
gradually being replaced by more or less co- 
operation. The different branches of the Protes- 
tant Church carried on their work upon the plan 
of mental neutrality for the better part of a 
century. The time has now arrived when this 
is no longer possible. The stupendous magnitude 
of the task before us is slowly dawning upon 
the consciousness of an awakening Church in 
the presence of an awakening world. The very 
nature of existing conditions impels to unity of 
action, and unity of action is already emerging 
upon an ever-enlarging scale. Bishop Westcott 
long since pointed out that the effective impulse 
to the reunion of Christendom was to come from 
the mission field. So it has proved and is prov- 
ing. The great Edinburgh Conference of 1910 
offered to many who attended it almost the first 
clear vision of that far-off event. There are 
increasing indications that all branches of the 
Christian Church are now more sensitive to the 
evils of their unhappy division than ever before. 
The remedy is rightly sought in united action. 
On this subject missionaries are usually in ad- 
vance of their boards, and boards in advance 
of the membership of the Church at large. 






202 The Uplift of China 

DemSTdfo? ^he ^ rst exam P^ e of missionary union in China 
union was tnat between the English Presbyterian and 
the American Reformed Churches in Amoy, 
which was accomplished with very great diffi- 
culty in face of the resolute opposition of one of 
the home boards. Dr. Talmage was wont to say 
that in his early missionary life he discovered that 
the official name of this society was "The Re- 
formed Dutch Church of North America in 
China." Upon mature deliberation he became 
convinced that there was in that title far too much 
geography and far too little religion. Our differ- 
ences, as Dr. John R. Mott reminds us, are largely 
Occidental and accidental and without meaning 
to Orientals. One of the China delegates to 
the Edinburgh Conference in a memorable seven- 
minute speech made a point which is engraved 
on the memory of many who heard it : "Denomi- 
national distinctions do not interest us Chinese." 
The West China Missionary Conference was 
held in Ch'eng-tu, the capital of Ssu-ch'uan, in 
January, 1908. It was a body of very mixed 
composition, embracing the Church Missionary 
Society, the international and interdenomina- 
tional China Inland Mission, English Friends 
(Quaker), American and Canadian Methodists, 
American Baptists, North, the British and For- 
eign and the American Bible Societies, the Young 
Men's Christian Association, and others, com- 
prising 150 missionaries from the provinces of 



Missionary Problems 203 

Ssu-ch'uan, Yun-nan, Kuei-chou. This body, 
after full and earnest discussion, voted with 
unanimity that their ideal was "one united 
Church for West China." 

At a conference under the auspices of the union in china 

r t Approved by 

Committee of Reference and Council of the Home Church 
Conference of Foreign Mission Boards of North 
America, held in New York on February 29, 
1912, the following resolutions were adopted as 
an unofficial expression of its opinion: 

1. This Conference desires to assure the Missions 
in the strongest possible manner of its unreserved ap- 
proval of the effort to accomplish the union of the 
Christian Church in China, and promises the Missions 
that they will have in such efforts the hearty support 
of the members of this Conference. 

2. The Conference approves of the fullest possible 
measure not only of cooperation but of union in all 
forms of mission work, such as education, preparation 
and publication of literature, hospitals, and philan- 
thropic work. 

3. With deep satisfaction at the establishment of 
the Church of Christ in China, and recognizing the su- 
preme place which the Chinese Church must occupy 
in the evangelization of the nation, this Conference 
expresses its sympathy with every purpose of the 
Church itself to unite in the interests of increased 
strength and economy and of the effective propagation 
of the gospel of Christ. 

To illustrate further the spirit of the Confer- f^™ 'outlook 
ence, another quotation is made from the section 
on "The Message of the Conference": 

We rejoice in the measure of unity already attained 



204 The Uplift of China 

by the Christian forces in China and in their ability 
in this hour, without waste or discord, to present to 
the Chinese people the one faith which we all hold and 
the one Lord whom we all follow. We rejoice that 
so many of the men who have wrought for China in 
this time of national need have been Christian men 
who have borne their great responsibilities with Chris- 
tian fidelity and sought to serve their country with 
Christian unselfishness. With a Christian Church 
united in its mission and with Christian men serving 
the State in patriotic and religious devotion, we believe 
that the prayers of many hearts will be answered that, 
on the one hand, a pure and unconfused gospel may 
be preached to the nation, and that, on the other hand, 
the Christian spirit, unmixed with secular misunder- 
standing or personal ambition, may control the minds 
of the men who are to bear rule and authority in the 
new day. 

In the effort to which the Christian forces of the 
nation will now give themselves with a new zeal, to 
carry the gospel far and wide over China and deep into 
the life of the people, we desire to assure them of the 
sympathy and support of the Church of the West, and 
we now make appeal to the Home Church to meet 
the emergency with unceasing prayer and unwithhold- 
ing consecration. 

Pro c P hSS The Chinese Christian Church is ready to take 
Autonomy c h ar g e f j ts own affairs, as the Church among 
all other nations where Christianity has been 
naturalized has done. Nothing can prevent this, 
nothing ought to prevent it. "Denominational 
distinctions do not interest us Chinese." When 
once the Chinese Christian Church has taken 
complete charge, the unity of the Church will 



Missionary Problems 205 

proceed mainly along Chinese and not along- 
Occidental lines. Shall we not anticipate that 
time by earnest effort to remove stumbling-blocks 
out of the way? This is perhaps the most im- 
portant phase of the problem of the future 
Chinese Church. 



206 The Uplift of China 

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VII 

Aim : To Realize the Call of the Problems at 
Present Awaiting Solution in China 

i. What are the possible advantages to the 
Christian Church of persecution? 

2. What are the disadvantages? 

3. What are the main benefits of the proclama- 
tion of religious liberty promised by President 
Yuan? 

4. Are there any dangers connected with it, un- 
der the circumstances, for religion in general? 

5. What would be the advantages of the sug- 
gested independence from foreign connections 
of the Chinese Church? 

6. What would be the dangers of such a separa- 
tion? 

7.* What should be the present policy of Chris- 
tian missions in China in view of the possi- 
bility of independence? 

8. If you were a missionary, how would you 
act towards a native Christian community that 
was beginning to be restive under your over- 
sight and yet seemed to need it? 

9.* What place would be left for missionary ac- 
tivity if all Chinese Christians united in an 
independent Chinese Church? 

10. What would be the advantages and disad- 
vantages of the sudden popularity of Chris- 
tianity in China? 

11. What special responsibilities does such a pros- 
pect lay upon the Christian Church? 

12. What are the main arguments for extensive 
and for intensive missionary work at the 
present time? 

13.* Why cannot the Chinese Church continue 






Missionary Problems 207 

under foreign missionaries rather than native 

leaders? 
14. Do you think any American Church could 

profitably continue to choose its leaders from 

non-Americans? 
15.* What are the principal problems created for 

missionary education by the development of 

the government system of education? 

16. Should missionary schools withdraw after the 
government schools have become efficient edu- 
cationally? 

17. How does the argument for denominational 
schools in this country compare with that for 
missionary schools in China? 

18.* What recommendations would you make as 
to missionary educational policy, in view of 
the present situation? 

19.* What are the arguments for union in higher 
education? How far should such union ex- 
tend? 

20* What are the arguments for union in other 
lines of missionary work? How complete 
should such union be? 

21. How do the arguments for a union of Chinese 
Christians compare with those for a union of 
Christians in America? 

22. Why are missionaries usually more strongly 
in favor of union than Christians at home? 

References for Advanced Study — Chapter VII 
. Educational Union. 

China Mission Year Book, 1910, V. 

Cecil: Changing China, XXV, XXVI. 

Burton : Education of Women in China, XI. 

World Missionary Conference Report, Edinburgh, 
Vol. Ill, 104-121. 



208 The Uplift of China 

II. Independent Chinese Church. 

China Mission Year Book, 1910, VIII. 

Shanghai Conference Report, 1-34, 409-442. 

World Missionary Conference Report, Edinburgh, 
Vol. II, 266-268. 
III. Comity and Union. 

China Mission Year Book, 1910, XVII. 

Shanghai Conference Report, 311-334, 689-721. 

World Missionary Conference Report, Edin- 
burgh, Vol. VIII, 164-173. 



TRANSFORMATION, CONDITION, 
APPEAL 



The work of reform upon which China has entered 
is a herculean one. Many well-informed foreign ob- 
servers predict that the movement will break down and 
the reaction will bring the country back to its ancient 
conservative ways. There are no doubt many obstacles 
in the way of success. The Chinese are attempting 
to bring about in government and society in a very 
few years what it required centuries for the Anglo- 
Saxon and other European races to achieve. 

— John W. Foster. 

China's new system of education shows the danger 
of adopting modern methods without Christian prin- 
ciples. It virtually debars Christians from the faculties 
and student body. Infidelity, however, has free en- 
trance as long as it adheres to the external forms im- 
posed by the state. An edict of January, 1907, placed 
the veneration of Confucius upon the same level as 
the worship of Heaven and Earth and made homage 
to the tablet of Confucius compulsory upon all officials 
and teachers and pupils in the government schools. 
Some writers have construed this as an effort on the 
part of the government to avoid the difficulty which 
has existed in the case of Christian students who have 
conscientious scruples about the worship of Confucius, 
since Heaven and Earth are worshiped only by the 
Emperor. But many missionaries do not place this 
construction upon the edict. They regard it rather 
as an attempted defense against the growing power of 
Christianity. Christ, the Son of God, must be matched 
in the popular mind by another Divine Man, Confucius, 
who must be regarded henceforth as more than a holy 
man and sage. At any rate, the government schools 
are far from being comfortable places for consistent 
Christians. 

— Arthur J. Brown. 



210 



CHAPTER VIII 

TRANSFORMATION, CONDITION, 

APPEAL 1 

np HE most ancient and the greatest of Em- gSm^pSPto 
A pires by the most spectacular change of Re P ublic 
modern times, perhaps of all time, has suddenly 
become a Republic. An absolute and patriarchal 
government has been thus transformed, not as 
was to have been expected by slow and somewhat 
violent stages, but, as it were, over night and 
at a bound. 

On the ioth day of October, 191 1, a mutiny SrA^vofutilfn 
of a few regiments of government troops oc- 
curred at Wuchang, the capital of the provinces 
of Hu-nan and Hu-pei. The foreign press in 
China had no premonition of what was coming, 
and did not comprehend it when it happened. 
It was generally supposed that the rising would 
easily be quelled and that things would soon 
resume their normal course. There was fighting 
and massacre at Wuchang, and across the Yang- 

1 The present revision (March, 1912) of this chapter is merely 
intended to present a general outline of existing conditions and the 
steps by which they have been reached. In the universal confusion 
prevailing in China at a time when almost anything may be sent to 
the melting-pot, it is quite out of the question to speak with pre- 
cision either of what is or what is to be. To Christians with a 
vision, the greatness of the missionary opportunity in China and 
the urgency of the cry for help from without China are the most 
outstanding facts. 

211 



212 The Uplift of China 

tzu River in Han-k'ou and Han-yang fighting, 
pillage, and arson occurred on a large scale. 
East^IrcTand Nanking, the capital of a group of provinces 
southward f ur th er down the Yang-tzu, was fiercely attacked 
and was captured with more arson, plundering, 
and massacre. Events somewhat similar took 
place in Fu-chou, in Canton, and in many other 
cities. There were still other cities, such as 
Shanghai, the great gateway of China, where the 
loss of life was but trifling, the whole population 
going over to the revolutionists without disturb- 
ance of any kind. To an unprejudiced observer, 
it seemed that China had entered upon one of 
those tempestuous epochs when, for decades or 
for an entire generation, social order is sus- 
pended, while a dynasty is slowly dying and a 
new one is in process of retarded evolution. 
Manchu But a new and a mighty force had entered the 

Abdication , p & J 

and choice of celestial empire. The first revolutionary step, 
as we have already seen, was taken October 10. 
After a full month of vacillation on the part 
of the Manchu court and the Manchu clan the 
irrevocable imperial decree of abdication was 
issued February 12, 1912, four months and two 
days from the initial revolt. His excellency 
Yuan Shih-k'ai took the oath as President of 
the Chinese Republic on March 10, five months 
to a day from the inception of the movement for 
a change of rule, 
workofpltriots "Just as conflagrations light up the whole 




NEW GOVERNMENT COLLEGE. NANYANG 



; 11 V 



I ■ _ 



m%f m 



II 


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\ ASSOCIATION FIELD DAYSHANGHAI \ 




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WESTERN INNOVATION.SHANGMAI 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 213 

city," says Victor Hugo, "revolutions light up 
the whole race," and we may well agree with 
the Chinese student in America who makes this 
quotation when he follows it with the observa- 
tion: "Of no revolution recorded in the world's 
history can this be said with a greater degree 
of truth than of the present revolution in China." 
It has become generally known that this stupen- 
dous change has been long in preparation, and 
that it was for the most part brought about by 
groups of men who have either been educated 
abroad or at home had come under strong West- 
ern influences. Of these the leader was Dr. Sun 
Yat-sen, whose romantic story has not yet been 
fully told. It was his steady and unflagging 
patriotism in preparing the way which made the 
revolution possible. It was his self-denying act 
in retiring from the Presidency that a man of 
more experience might navigate the ship of state 
through troubled waters that gave the best evi- 
dence that a new patriotism has appeared in 
China. It is an interesting and a suggestive fact 
that Dr. Sun and several of his Provisional 
Cabinet are baptized Christians. 

A few words should be devoted to replying China Has 

r J ° Progressed 

to a question and an objection which have often 
been raised. "How is it," we are asked, "that 
China alone has seemed to be an exception to the 
universal law of progress, apparently never ad- 
vancing, yet despite the grossest maladministra- 



214 The Uplift of China 

tion of government, never decaying?" The true 
answer to the seeming paradox we must believe 
to be that the Chinese do not constitute and have 
never constituted an exception to the universal 
law of human progress. Owing to their isola- 
tion from other branches of the human family, 
to their relative superiority to their environment, 
and to their contentment with their own ideas 
and ideals, they, more than any other people in 
history, have appeared to be unchangeable. 
*Hiv?M^ked But the earliest traditions of the Chinese refer 
Development back to a time when they emerged from bar- 
barism, learned to build dwellings, to use fire, 
to celebrate marriage, to keep count of time, and 
in general to lay broad the foundation of their 
civilization. Silk, cotton, paper, written charac- 
ters, printing, the compass, gunpowder, the 
whole range of invention and discovery have 
come into that civilization gradually and at wide 
intervals of time. We know that Indian corn 
(maize) and tobacco were introduced during the 
recent Manchu dynasty, while such plants as 
the sweet potato and the peanut, now so widely 
cultivated, have in some parts of the empire been 
known only in recent years. 
siow A Ev t okrtfon r ^e distinction between Chinese and Western 
nations is not that the latter have advanced while 
China has remained stationary, but that the rate 
of China's evolution has been abnormally slow. 
To go back to the beginning of the causes which 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 215 

have led to China's decisive change of front, 
we must take account of the nearly four centuries 
of intercourse with the West, more especially 
to the events of the last seventy-eight years 
since the abolition in 1834 of the British East 
India Company's monopoly in China. This was 
followed by half a decade of skirmishing between 
Great Britain and China over trade matters, 
more particularly opium. The inevitable col- 
lision occurred in 1839, when China was hope- 
lessly defeated. The treaty of Nanking followed 
in 1842, by which China was "opened," and the 
hve ports of Canton, Amoy, Fu-chou, Ning-po, 
and Shanghai were made accessible to foreign 
trade. 

Fourteen years of unquiet peace followed, wars which 
when another war with Great Britain took place, Development 
during which Canton was again captured; but 
nothing was really settled until still another con- 
flict had taken place between China on the one 
part and Great Britain and France on the other, 
when, October, i860, Peking was captured, the 
treaty of Tientsin (signed in 1858, but the next 
year repudiated by the government) was ratified, 
and China was once more "open." That impor- 
tant event took place only fifty-one and a half 
years ago, and it is unquestionably during this 
period that the most efficient causes of the pres- 
ent uprising have been in operation. The great 
T'ai P'ing rebellion, which for half a generation 



216 The Uplift of China 

devastated China, was largely abetted by the 
weakness of the Manchu dynasty in its first trial 
of strength with Great Britain, and but for the 
aid of foreigners that rebellion could never have 
been put down. The struggle with the French 
of the middle eighties (which ended in a drawn 
game) was of value in giving the Chinese a 
new military self-confidence, but it was the de- 
cisive defeat of China at the hands of Japan 
in 1894-5 which opened the eyes of China as a 
whole, albeit slowly and with the greatest diffi- 
culty, to her condition of helpless weakness, 
*'" R*rog«S In l8 9 8 the first intelligent reforms in China 
steps £ or manv reigns were projected by the late 
Emperor Kuang Hsu, but they were cut short 
by his aunt, the late Grand Empress Dowager, 
who, virtually deposing the Emperor, resumed 
the reins of government, retaining them till her 
death, ten years later (November, 1908). In 
the interim occurred the great Boxer uprising, 
in which not merely multitudes of living Chinese, 
but the spirits of myriads of millions of their 
military ancestors, were pitted against the world, 
in the Taoist belief that they could render their 
worshipers invulnerable and invincible. The 
court and the Manchu officials were for the 
most part completely captivated by this Boxer 
delusion, which was both infectious and con- 
tagious, swiftly sweeping over large parts of the- 
empire. It was directed against foreigners 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 217 



Movement 



whose aggressions, political and commercial, were 
becoming more and more intolerable. But it 
was felt that such a mighty force might readily 
be turned against the unpopular Manchu dy- 
nasty. Its only security then was in patronizing 
the Boxers to save the throne. 

The outcome of this erroneous policy was the Failure of the 

r J Boxer 

siege of all the legations as well as other foreign- 
ers in Peking, for fifty-six days, from June 20 
to August 14, 1900. The relief of Peking by 
the allied forces was at once followed by the 
flight of the Empress Dowager, with the Emperor 
and part of the court, to the city of Hsi-an fu, 
in Shen-si, an ancient capital of the empire. 

There they remained remote from Peking, yet 
in telegraphic communication with it, but re- 
turned in January, 1902, when the court in 
triumph reentered that city. The past seemed 
to have been almost completely obliterated in 
the bright promise of the future. Many foreign- 
ers in China, however, felt a not unnatural 
anxiety at the return of the Empress Dowager 
to full power with no inquiry into the past and 
no substantial guaranty for the future other than 
the exaction of a punitive indemnity of 450,- 
000,000 taels (ounces) of silver, the payment 
to be distributed over about forty years. 

The real motives which actuated the Empress Progressive 

\ m r Action of 

Dowager in introducing the numerous reforms Empress 

. Dowager 

which were plentifully sprinkled through the 



Return of the 
Court to 
Peking 



218 The Uplift of China 

seven closing years of her reign will probably 
never be certainly known. She must have clearly 
perceived the necessity of some of them, while 
we may suppose that others, especially the 
promise of "constitutional government" for 
China, were largely due to a fixed purpose to 
throw more than one tub to the whale of popular 
clamor. Southeastern China in particular, which 
in the seventeenth century had stoutly resisted 
the incoming Manchus, was filled with active 
and aggressive animosity to the Tartar rule. 
This hostility it was hoped to propitiate by the 
promise of reforms a long time in advance. 
Abolition of The greatest of them all was the abolition of 

Old-style t ,,,.., . . . , . , 

Examination the old-style civil service examination, which, 
having its root in the Han dynasty nearly eight- 
een centuries ago, was developed in the T'ang 
dynasty and in the Sung from the sixth to the 
eleventh centuries of our era. The epoch-making 
decree announcing this momentous change was 
issued September 20, 1905. Whether we con- 
sider the millions of scholars concerned or the 
consequences of the step, it may justly be re- 
garded as the most comprehensive intellectual 
revolution in the history of mankind. 

Educational Two years later this was followed by another 
decree, scarcely less sweeping, which extended 
the benefit of the new education to the uncounted 
millions of Chinese women, who, by their bound 
feet, intellectual ignorance, and spiritual dark- 



Features 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 219 

ness, have been most literally all their age-long 
corporate lifetime subject to bondage. It was 
late in 1905 that two parties of high Manchu and 
Chinese officials left Peking — to the sinister ac- 
companiment of bomb-throwing at the railway 
station — commissioned to visit Western coun- 
tries to study "constitutional government." So 
far as these magnates themselves were con- 
cerned, this was but a belated instalment of 
their public education, but as they were accom- 
panied by a large force of officials of lesser rank, 
many of them educated abroad, and by numerous 
interpreters, the deputation must have absorbed 
many new ideas. As a result of their report in 
the following year, additional steps in reform 
were taken, until at the time of the death of 
the Empress Dowager and the Emperor in 1908, 
almost every one of his former proposals had 
been adopted either in fact or in principle. The 
Chinese have always been accustomed to be led, 
so that by these numerous and somewhat stun- 
ning innovations the people at large were awed 
into astonishment or benumbed into indifference. 
The sociological effect of the educational changes 
was overwhelming, but they were lost in the 
general confusion of an age of rapid and perma- 
nent transformation. 

Next in importance to the overturning of the Provincial 

s-., . . ., . . Councils and 

Chinese system of civil service examinations National 

1 • • t-» • • r^ • Assembly 

was the introduction of Provincial Councils, 



220 The Uplift of China 

which were intended merely as advisory bodies 
with restricted rights of discussion and without 
power of legislation. These councils were a 
necessary step in the introduction of the prom- 
ised "constitutional government" in China. They 
were held in the provincial capitals, and many 
fine buildings for their accommodation have been 
erected upon the ruins of the old examination 
cells. Twenty-one of these councils were open 
for a session of forty days on October 14, 1909. 
The franchise for the choice of members was 
wisely limited to officials, to scholars, and to large 
property holders. Although no such deliberative 
bodies have ever before gathered in China, yet 
the discussions were conducted with remark- 
able dignity and intelligence, giving promise that 
it would not be long before the functions of 
these assemblies would be greatly enlarged. The 
government had thus, more or less unwittingly, 
uncorked the fateful bottle, and the genius of 
democracy, after age-long suppression, was now 
liberated once and for all. The National Assem- 
bly, which was intended as the organism out of 
which, after seventeen years should have elapsed, 
the National Parliament was to develop, met 
in Peking in October, 1910, a year later than the 
Provincial Councils. It was composed of two 
hundred members, one half of whom were di- 
rectly appointed by the government, from a wide 
variety of incongruous sources, racial, tribal, 



Democratic 

Initiative of the 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 221 

official. The other half were appointed by the 
governors of provinces from nomination by the 
Provincial Councils, double in number to the 
appointments. 

Notwithstanding the apparently fatal bar that 
the National Assembly was in no sense represen- Assembly 
tative and was presided over by an imperial 
prince, it immediately developed democratic 
tendencies, and at once demanded the shortening 
of the period before the National Parliament 
should meet. In response to their request the 
time was then limited to three years. Success 
in this contention led to an attack upon the 
hitherto untouchable Grand Council, resulting 
in the replacing of that body a few months later 
by a so-called Cabinet with theoretical respon- 
sibility on the part of its ministers. The 
"budget," a luxury new to China, was criticized 
in detail, involving a novel controversy between 
the Assembly and the Board of Revenue, in which 
the National Assembly seemed to have the best 
of it. The Assembly had thus early in its career 
succeeded in establishing its right to inquire into 
the actions of the throne, to control supplies, and 
to initiate legislation. To the friends of democ- 
racy this surprisingly rapid evolution of a ca- 
pacity for government by deliberative bodies 
in China was extremely gratifying, and will be 
a most important factor in the development of 
the new republic. 



222 The Uplift of China 



These Bodies 
are Essential 



For the first time in the immemorial history 
of China there was now a legally constituted and 
recognized body between the people and the 
throne, a body able to assert itself with success 
and certain to grow in power and in favor, not 
with the rulers, indeed, but with the ruled. The 
Provincial Councils, young as they are, and the 
National Assembly, still younger, are now essen- 
tial factors in the evolution of a stable govern- 
ment for China. 
A Mov°ment ^ n ^ e y ear I 9°^ a memorial was prepared by 
the officers of the Anti-Opium League and signed 
by x >333 missionaries of all nationalities and 
bound in a volume with yellow silk, and sent to 
the governor-genernal of the three lower prov- 
inces on the Yang-tzu River. It reached him on 
the 19th of August and was by him forwarded 
to Peking. The imperial edict, ordering the dis- 
continuance of the use of opium and of the 
growth of the poppy plant, each under specified 
conditions, was issued a month later. The 
avowed object was "to make China strong," but 
before long not only a patriotic element but a 
truly moral one likewise was injected into the 
movement, which was taken up with great ear- 
nestness and zeal alike by officials and people, 
and especially by students. No such note of 
social reform had ever before been struck in 
China. In many cities, and in some cities re- 
peatedly, valuable opium-pipes were brought out, 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 223 

neatly piled up, and after being saturated with 
kerosense oil were destroyed by fire in the pres- 
ence of applauding multitudes. The foreign 
press in China, always skeptical of Chinese sin- 
cerity, ridiculed the decree and denied the pos- 
sibility of its enforcement. But when, the fol- 
lowing year, active steps were taken for such 
enforcement, so much progress was made even 
in the most discouraging parts of the empire 
that no doubt remained of the fixed purpose of 
the government or of the general cooperation 
of the people, varied by occasional riots and in- 
surrections on the part of the opium growers. 
The International Opium Conference, held at 
Shanghai in 1909, revealed in its reports from 
every land a state of things which made world- 
wide restriction absolutely necessary in the in- 
terests of civilization. The British government 
and the government of India have now come 
to an understanding with China by which, at 
the expiration of a short term of years, the trade 
in opium shall automatically cease. 

Prevention of the introduction of morphia and NewE^i!? 11 ° f 
other drugs into China will prove much more 
difficult. In the meantime China is being inun- 
dated with opium from other sources than India, 
as well as with foreign liquors. The cigarette 
habit is becoming fixed upon the Chinese people, 
largely through the expenditure of a million or 
two dollars each year by the British and Ameri- 



224 The Uplift of China 

can Tobacco Company, which has one or two 
hundred agents scattered over China to promote 
that habit and to hasten sales. 
stJeSgth^fthe fr * s a regrettable incident of the revolution 
Reform fa^ - m fa Q general relaxation of all authority, 
the poppy plant is reappearing, for in some places 
opium has risen to twenty times its former price, 
thus making the temptation to illicit commerce 
and illegal cultivation of the poppy practically 
irresistible; but with the resumption of stable 
government there will no doubt be a return to 
rigid prohibition. In any case it may rightly 
be claimed that China made more progress with 
its Anti-Opium campaign in three years than 
was made by any Western nation in a like reform 
against intoxicating liquors in an entire genera- 
tion. 

Act o°ther 8 Swii •"• n I 9 I ° the Provincial Council of Canton or 
Kuang-tung Province instituted an attack upon 
the strongly entrenched licensed gambling, which 
had for years been a government monopoly 
farmed out to the highest bidder, and against 
great odds the attack was successful. These in- 
stances, together with the edict designed to 
abolish slavery which still exists in China, show 
a moral virility of good omen for a country 
just entering upon self-government. 
Extension of During the past decade the railway mileage 1 
of China has been greatly increased, but many 

1 There are 6,300 miles in operation. 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 225 

important lines have been left unfinished, as that 
between Yu-ch'ang and Canton ; the recently un- 
dertaken line between I-ch'ang on the upper 
Yang-tzu and the province of Ssu-ch'uan, and 
many others. One important road, that between 
Peking and Kalgan, about one hundred and 
thirty miles in length, was built entirely by 
Chinese labor, directed by Mr. Jeme Tien-yow, 
a Chinese engineer, educated in America. 

The postal system in China has had a phe- Postal System 
nomenally rapid development, showing its adap- 
tation to the necessities of the people. Its parcel- 
post facilities especially are far in advance of 
anything in the United States or Canada, while 
the rate of letter postage (for each half ounce 
only) is only half that of the former country. In 
the confused conditions prevailing throughout 
large parts of China, the postal couriers have 
often been obliged to suspend operations. 

The commissioners of the imperial maritime £ hases ,? t f 
customs, the income of which has been pledged 
as a security for foreign loans, have, during the 
revolution, maintained an interesting and some- 
what unique neutrality between revolutionists 
and imperialists, each side dreading that foreign 
intervention which might destroy the plans of 
both. It is antagonism to foreign nations, com- 
pelling a unity between parts of the Chinese 
empire which could by no possibility be other- 
wise achieved, that is the hope of China. It is 



226 The Uplift of China 

to the fear of intervention also, and not to any 
regard to the foreigner as such, that we owe the 
marvelous protection extended (with some con- 
spicuous and unhappy exceptions) to thousands 
of men and women of every nationality scattered 
over the great empire, many of them quite un- 
able to escape, since travel would involve still 
greater risk than any to which they were exposed 
at home. When the experiences of foreigners 
in China in this revolution are compared with 
those of the foreign residents of China in the 
year 1900, the wonderful difference is readily 
appreciated. 
Probable That it is so often supposed that a revolution 

Period of , . ^^ 

Disturbance of this magnitude can sweep over a country like 
China, and calm down as suddenly as it appeared, 
shows a lack of historic imagination. Those 
who recall the after effects of the English revo- 
lution of the seventeenth century or of the 
French revolution of the eighteenth, not to speak 
of others of more recent date, will cherish no 
such illusion. Decades may elapse before po- 
litical equilibrium is completely restored, but this 
is only what China has experienced in earlier 
stages of its development times without number. 
Yet even here there may be great surprises in 
store for us all. 
character and It is essential to take note of the unquestion- 
the change able f act that the old order has forever gone. 
We are to have politically, financially, economic- 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 227 

ally, commercially, industrially, a new China 
that in every aspect is to be reckoned with. A 
century ago Napoleon, always an astute observer 
of world events, is said to have remarked that 
China was a sleeping giant and should be allowed 
to slumber, for when China moved she would 
move the world. One of the distinguished 
Manchu statesmen of the middle of the last 
century also gave utterance to a remarkable 
prophecy: "You complain," he said, "that China 
moves too slowly. The time may come when 
you will cry that China is moving too fast." That 
time is already here. 

In bringing about this condition we rightly ^""dlthe^" 18 
recognize the mighty effect of Western civiliza- NewEra 
tion upon the civilization of the East. In this, 
as we have seen, commerce, diplomacy, and war 
have all had their share of influence. The estab- 
lishment of foreign legations in Peking in i860, 
and of consulates at all the open ports; the 
persuasive object-lesson of an honestly admin- 
istered Chinese imperial maritime customs serv- 
ice, the illumination imparted by the many 
thousand Occidentals domiciled in China, and 
an able and intelligent foreign press ; the constant 
visits of Chinese to foreign lands, and above 
all the return of Chinese who had been educated 
abroad — all these have been factors in the 
awakening of China. It is to be remembered 
also that by foreign intercourse dark shadows 



228 The Uplift of China 

have been thrown, but upon these in this con- 
nection it is unnecessary to dwell. To what 
extent and to what degree this great awakening 
has been due to Christian missions must be left 
to the impartial estimate of the future. Nor will 
it indeed ever be possible to disentangle the 
complicated web of causes and effects so as to 
determine with certainty their interaction. It 
is certain that missions have been one among 
forces which have been efficiently working in 
the celestial empire. But many of the other 
influences which have been mentioned could be 
felt through here and there an exceptional man. 
All of them combined touched only the outer 
fringe of the country, or the banks of its chief 
river. Many men other than missionaries have 
greatly contributed to our knowledge of China 
and its people, but probably the number of those 
who have permanently influenced the people of 
China is small. Nearly all of them have lived 
beside the Chinese, and not among them, and 
for this reason their acquaintance with the real 
life of the people was of necessity partial and 
limited. 
wwklf Missionaries, on the other hand, have pene- 

Missions trated tQ eyery part of ChIna and 1Iyed eyery- 

where — in the large cities, in market-towns, and 
in hamlets. They speak every dialect. They 
have been a constant force, an always growing 
force, an increasingly aggressive force. For 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 229 

many years it was an unintelligent criticism that 
their labors were devoid of result. In 1900 the 
same critics charged them with having turned 
the world upside down and brought on the Boxer 
earthquake. In the providence of God, Protes- 
tant missions had been established for two full 
generations before the great transformation of 
China began, in order that the seeds sown beside 
all waters might have time to germinate. So 
little impression did decades of the most labori- 
ous effort appear to produce on China, that it 
was not inaptly likened to an attempt to melt 
a glacier by holding up to it a tallow dip. 

What may it be soberly claimed that Christian Given°chinaT 
missions in China have accomplished? First £17 ""^ 
and chief est, they have brought to China a new 
idea of God. If the Chinese ever had the idea 
of God at all, it had ages ago disappeared like 
an inscription on a worn coin. The monotheistic 
concept outtops all other thoughts. In the ab- 
sence of it, the Chinese have worshiped real or 
imaginary heroes, and have been under an in- 
tolerable bondage to the spirits of the dead and 
to demons. Confucian morality with all its ex- 
cellences fatally lacks the sanction of a personal 
God of righteousness, holiness, justice, goodness, 
and truth. To any people there can be no greater 
gift than the knowledge of God as a Father, 
loving, caring for, and teaching his children! 
Without the unity of God there is no necessary 



230 The Uplift of China 

uniformity of nature, to the comprehension of 
which the Chinese have never had a key, their 
discoveries being apparently the result of happy 
accidents, and not due to induction from per- 
ceived laws. 

Man e imparted Christianity has bestowed upon the Chinese 
an altogether new idea of man, as by creation 
and by redemption the child of God. The Father- 
hood of God involves the brotherhood of man 
through Jesus Christ, and thus for the first 
time the classic dictum that "within the four 
seas all are brethren" has become vitalized with 
meaning, and the relation between God and man 
has been established. In China, as in all Oriental 
lands, the individual is of comparatively little 
consequence; the family, the clan, society, are 
everything. Woman is unhonored. At pre- 
cisely the points where Chinese social and family 
life is weakest, the immeasurable blessings of 
Christianity are most convincingly evident. It 
dignifies and ennobles man by revealing his in- 
dividual accountability to God. It elevates 
woman, sanctions the relation between husband 
and wife, and glorifies alike motherhood and 
childhood. 

r ^f S c°haracter Christianity proves its divine mission to China 
by its transformation of character, not in isolated 
instances only, but upon a large scale and with 
lasting effects. Gamblers, heavy opium-smokers 
like some who in 1900 sealed with their lives the 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 231 

testimony to their reformation, proud scholars, 
the most hopelessly ignorant old women, mul- 
titudes mainly, but not exclusively, from the 
middle and the lower middle classes of society, 
have been recreated in the temper and the spirit 
of their minds and have begun to live a new life. 
In China as elsewhere many of the regions most 
difficult to open, as the Fu-chien Province, have 
yielded the largest fruit. The people of Man- 
churia, on the other hand, where the mass of 
the population are immigrants separated from 
their ancient homes and from their ancestral 
graves, have accepted Christianity upon a scale 
elsewhere unexampled. 

It was once thought that the unemotional Spiritual Truth 

Now Becoming; 

Chinese nature was unfavorable to strong re- Effectual 
ligious impressions; but it is now a frequent 
observation that the Chinese are not only as sus- 
ceptible to spiritual truth as are Occidentals, 
but often much more so, for the reason that 
they have not frittered away their moral strength 
by resistance to repeated appeal. The wonderful 
phenomena connected with evangelistic work in 
churches and schools in widely separated parts 
of China, as well as among Chinese wholly out- 
side of Christian influence, are of great interest 
and value as evidencing a great force hitherto 
wholly unknown. It is not merely by mission- 
aries of an evangelistic temper and training that 
these great movements have been conducted. 



2$2 The Uplift of China 

Chinese evangelists, tactful, consecrated, and 
of deep spiritual power — among them Chinese 
women — are more and more appearing, whose 
influence among their own people will be increas- 
ingly felt. Among these may fitly be mentioned 
Pastor Ting Li-mei of Shan-tung, whose remark- 
able work among the students in his own prov- 
ince in Chih-li and in Manchuria will never be 
forgotten. As a tangible result, within a few 
months, several hundred pupils in schools and 
colleges gave up their burning ambition for 
wealth, power, and fame and pledged themselves 
to live as active Christians, while many of them 
promised to devote their lives to the spiritual 
regeneration of their own country. 
In - dil Lives Here is the human side of the energy which 
Transformed j s to transform China. The oral proclamation 
of the gospel, with a view to the regeneration 
of individuals, has always been the key-note of 
Protestant missionary work. Amid great dis- 
couragements, fiery trials, bitter disappointments, 
this enterprise has been steadily prosecuted, until 
much of China is dotted with nearly 5,000 twin- 
kling points of light, each representing a mission 
planted in the cold and loveless Oriental atmos- 
phere — a dynamo tirelessly giving out in all 
directions light and heat. Sometimes, in the 
midst of much apparent success, a glacial epoch 
has set in. But lives of blameless self-sacrifice 
eventually overcome prejudice and suspicion, 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 233 

and in an ever-increasing ratio there is progress. 
The quest for results is more or less vain. With- 
out ignoring or depreciating tables of statistics, 
true mission work in China may be said to be 
indefinitely beyond and above them. While they 
record merely external phenomena, missions are 
introducing a Christian sociology — a new moral 
and spiritual climate. 

It is by the indefatigably persistent diffusion chriitiin 0f 
of its literature that Christianity has largely pre- Literature 
pared the way for the new era in China. Much 
of the country has been sown with books and 
tracts, and although multitudes of them seem to 
accomplish nothing, yet this is in appearance 
only, for books penetrate where the living voice 
can never be heard. A work like the late Dr. 
Faber's Civilization East and West has been 
an invaluable handbook to progressive Chinese, 
official and non-official, by showing upon what 
lines China should be reformed. The Review of 
the Times, with its constant essays upon China 
and her neighbors, and indeed upon all themes 
of importance, has been a light shining in a dark 
land. Dr. Allen's history of the Chinese- 
Japanese war, Dr. Richard's History of the 
Nineteenth Century, countless books and periodi- 
cals, have added each its silent quota of influence. 
The aggregate effect of this vast total is beyond 
computation. The ideas emanating from litera- 
ture of this description have for many years 



234 



The Uplift of China 



Medical Service 



Campaign 

against the 

Pneumonic 

Plague 



been diffused throughout China, as aqueous 
vapor pervades the atmosphere. Without the 
fertilization of the Chinese mind by this litera- 
ture, it may well be doubted whether the recent 
revolution would have been possible either in 
conception or in execution. 

As we have seen, toward breaking down the 
initial walls of prejudice, no agency can compete 
with the hospital and dispensary, which, though 
at first often bitterly antagonized, eventually 
win their way to the favor of peasant and of 
prince. Here also statistics are merely the stuffing 
of the dried skin of truth, but what must be 
the value of 388 fully qualified foreign phy- 
sicians with their native assistants, treating in 
191 1 in 321 hospitals and dispensaries 1,333,482 
patients. The inevitable trend toward union 
medical colleges in all the great centers of China 
will enable missionary medical education to keep 
pace and more than keep pace with anything 
that the Chinese government is likely to do in 
this line for a long time to come. 

The Lockhart Union Medical College in Pe- 
king graduated its first class in 191 1, just in 
time to take an active and an efficient part in 
fighting the dreadful pneumonic plague, which 
in the spring of that year made its appearance 
in southern Siberia and in northern Manchuria. 
Its terrible mortality was one hundred per cent, 
for it was reported that no case recovered. Yet 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 235 

it was ascertained that by due precaution the 
disease could be isolated and thus extinguished. 
It was not until this plague had been ignored 
and allowed to spread by returning laborers 
through Manchuria into Chih-li and Shan-tung 
that the government was at last aroused to the 
imperative necessity of taking active steps to 
deal with it. During that time many tens of 
thousands of lives were lost, including those of 
several skilled and devoted foreign physicians; 
but the plague was stayed, and, still better, China 
was definitely and for all time committed to the 
adoption of Western medical science. 

The Harvard Medical College in Shanghai is R e e s d ea?ch and 
to comprise not only all that is expected of such Trainin & Work 
an institution in the Occident, but in addition 
it will become a great organ of medical research, 
and a training-school not merely for physicians 
and surgeons — of whom China will need an un- 
limited supply — but of sanitary engineers, inspec- 
tors, and other officials, for whom during some 
millenniums China has been patiently, albeit un- 
consciously, waiting. No larger field for such 
a work can be found anywhere in the world. 
Every orphanage, every school for the blind, 
every leper refuge — all reaching down to the 
defective and dependent classes — is a testimony 
to a new spirit introduced from without, which 
is not only making itself felt but is winning for 
itself a sincere tribute of imitation. 



236 The Uplift of China 

Bd 5SM°ons ^e educational activity of missions in China 
has been incessant. Of the fourteen institutions 
of college grade in China, twelve are American, 
exhibiting the emphasis which Americans almost 
invariably place upon this agency. The total 
number of pupils at present under instruction 
in missionary colleges and schools in China is 
102,533. From the days of Dr. S. R. Brown, 
whose early beginnings in Macao and Hongkong 
produced a few men who became leaders in 
China, down to the present day, the potency of 
this instrument upon which the perpetuation and 
extension of the Church in China depend has 
been recognized. 

Advance in The education of Chinese girls in mission 

Woman s ° 

Education schools was but yesterday regarded by nearly 
all Chinese with amusement tinged with ridicule. 
Yet so great was the change that, almost before 
the fully developed women's colleges can be 
acclimated in China, they have become the ideal 
of the Chinese also. It was at the especial com- 
mand of the Empress Dowager that the imperial 
commissioners visited Wellesley College, Welles- 
ley, Massachusetts, to witness for themselves 
what had been done by and for American women, 
and to learn what might be done in China. There 
are already signs that the impending education 
and elevation of the more than one hundred and 
fifty millions of Chinese women will impart to 
the national development such an impetus as 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 237 

has never before been known; and, humanly 
speaking, it will have been largely brought about 
by the work and influence of Christian women 
in China. 

But a short time ago it would not have been JJJJJJJjJ 
too much to affirm that the export of Chinese uStedstiltes* 
young women to foreign countries for an educa- 
tion was totally impossible — almost indeed in- 
conceivable — yet in the statistics of 191 1 it 
appears that of the six hundred and fifty Chinese 
students then in the United States fifty-two were 
women. The number is sure to increase steadily. 
The women of China are indeed China's greatest, 
as well as her most neglected, asset. There can 
certainly be no more important question than 
what the Christian women of America can do 
for the women of China. 

Missionaries in China have studied the coun- §iffus?<!nof 
try, the people, and the language. They have ch » stianit r 
examined Chinese literature and have made com- 
pendious dictionaries of the language and of 
nearly every important dialect. They have care- 
fully investigated its religions in all their aspects, 
and the results of all these labors have been 
freely given to China and to all the world. But 
their great task has been to preach Christ and to 
explain Christianity. The knowledge which they 
have imparted has penetrated to the palace of 
the imperial household, to the yamens of the 
highest officials, and to the dwellings of the poor. 



.^238 The Uplift of China 

This is evidenced by the allusions to Christian 
teachings, met with in the native press. Articles 
have been frequently published in the influential 
secular Chinese dailies, showing the follies of 
Chinese superstitions, and proving, with a wealth 
of illustration and a fulness of knowledge to 
which no foreigner could aspire, that China has 
at present no religion at all but is vitally in need 
of one. 
JRe Effec?on Utterances like these are the reverberating 
Thought e choes, far louder and fuller than the original 
tones, of the countless sermons, chapel talks, 
leaflets, tracts, and books with which, as we have 
seen, China has been inundated — a remarkable 
instance of bread cast upon the waters, that is, 
seed widely sown upon soil covered by water, 
which, retiring, leaves the seed to germinate and 
to bear abundant harvest. Entire volumes con- 
cerning other than Chinese religions are now 
and again put forth by those occupying the 
highest official positions. Some of these works 
exhibit a surprising familiarity not only with the 
Bible but with Church history, and a friendliness 
of tone which ten years ago would never have 
been shown. The uncounted lives of Chinese 
Christians sacrificed in the convulsion of 1900, 
the many missionary martyrs, consecrated men, 
heroic women, and tender children, have not 
been, and will not be, without result in the future 
regeneration of the empire. Without as yet ac- 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 239 

cepting Christianity, China is now learning from 
Christian lands, and having entered upon this 
course, must of necessity do so more and more. 

The four thousand six hundred and twenty- Missionaries 

are Interpreters 

eight men and women in the Protestant foreign oftheWestto 

. ... . ° the East 

mission ranks in China might all be gathered into 
a single modern auditorium. Scattered through 
the empire, they are the chief of staff, the cap- 
tains and the generals, of a mighty army. Col- 
lectively they represent an accumulation of 
knowledge and experience concerning China and 
the Far East not elsewhere to be matched. They 
are, in an important sense, interpreters of the 
West to the East, and of the East to the West. 
They constitute an intelligent, a sympathetic, 
and a permanent body of mediators between 
the two. 

China has always been the largest, and, in view §jjjf ' 8 Great 
of its present unexampled transition, must be 
considered to be the most important mission field 
in the world. In such a time of national awaken- 
ing old things readily pass away and all things 
become new. There has long been in China an 
unconscious sense of dissatisfaction with China's 
past, but this feeling has now become acute and 
all-pervasive. There is everywhere a readiness 
to listen to preaching and to teaching upon 
almost any subject, such as was formerly un- 
known. Difficult and puzzling questions, too, 
are often propounded by auditors, relating es- 



240 The Uplift of China 

pecially to the conduct of Christian nations and 
to the mysteries of the Christian faith. The 
present fluid condition of Chinese society cannot 
last. Therefore full advantage of it should be 
taken while it does last. There is deep need of 
the influence of the Spirit of God all over the 
land, upon the preachers as well as the hearers 
of the gospel, upon the makers no less than upon 
the readers of Christian books. China is recon- 
structing her civilization, not out of the ruins, 
but out of the materials of the old. She needs 
guidance and help upon every point and in every 
place. Much of this help must come from 
abroad and much more must be developed from 
within. The profoundest need of the Christian 
Church in China is such an infilling of God's 
Spirit as shall fit it for the great task of evangel- 
izing the entire Chinese race. The Church has 
already among its leaders many noble men and 
women, but as yet they are relatively few. 
Can for the Best To train the coming race of Chinese civil and 
mining engineers, electricians, railway builders, 
and managers has required and will long require 
experts from Western lands. It is not less so 
in the far deeper mining and higher building 
of the Church of God in China. There is not 
now a general summons to "all sorts and con- 
ditions of men" to enter China, but only to the 
best, physically, intellectually, spiritually. The 
call is for men and women of an evangelistic 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 241 

temper and spirit to do among the growing 
churches of China the work which was done 
by the leaders mentioned in the book of Acts, 
a work of inspiration and of uplift. Long before 
they know enough of the language to enter t 
upon it, such men and such women will have 
found their field. 

Then there is the call for consecrated and Jutho% s 'Guide3 
thoroughly qualified teachers, professors, and Demanded 
Christian Association secretaries, for the schools 
and colleges already existing, as well as for the 
great union colleges which are yet to be, perhaps 
one in every province. At present the drift 
among the young students is overwhelmingly 
toward the dazzling opportunities afforded by 
the new China. The need of a strong personal 
influence upon them, by wise men and winning 
women from Christian lands, is one of the most 
imperative anywhere to be found. There is an 
unceasing demand for skilful physicians, men 
and women, not to conduct hospitals and dispen- 
saries merely, but to introduce into China the 
new medicine with Christian accessories, one of 
the wisest, sanest, most hopeful of enterprises. 
There is urgent need for men and women called 
of the Lord to help prepare the new Christian 
and general literature for the illumination of 
hundreds of millions of minds and hearts. As 
yet, not one half of one per cent, of the books 
which ought to be provided has been produced. 



Missionaries 



242 The Uplift of China 

Is there elsewhere any call like this? In every 
part of the vast field there is a demand for strong 
and wise all-round missionary statesmen, to ad- 
vise, control, and guide in the difficult emer- 
gencies always arising. Such men must indeed 
be trained, but witn the right material under right 
conditions they will be developed. In every mis- 
sion there is great need of able and experienced 
business men to promote efficiency and to elimi- 
nate waste. 
Enlistment of How is it that American missions have rela- 

Seit-supporting 

tively so few self-supporting missionaries work- 
ing, not independently, but coordinately with 
others? In each department of activity their 
numbers should be greatly increased. The young 
men and young women who are needed are those 
who have first been infilled by the Spirit of God. 
iThey must know their Bibles tl.at they may be 
able to wield the sword of the Spirit. They must 
know how to pray and must have unlimited 
faith in this mightiest of weapons. They must 
be men and women of vision — "visionaries" they 
will be termed — of the pattern of those who in 
1806 knelt under the Williamstown haystack, 
undaunted by the indolent torpor of the Church 
or the alert hostility of the world. They must 
have at least some assimilated and funded knowl- 
edge of what has been done toward establishing 
(the kingdom of God on earth, and of the vast 
work which yet remains undone and not begun. 



Trans formation, Condition, Appeal 243 

Two generations ago such knowledge was Required* 1003 
exceptional, now, thanks to the mission study- 
classes, it is common. They should be men and 
women who are not anxious lest they be not 
prominent, or even lest they be altogether un- 
known. They should be willing to subordinate 
the insubordinate personal element, to esteem 
others better than themselves, and even, if need 
be, to work under others. They should know 
men and how to approach and win them. They 
should have had actual experience of some form 
of actual work before venturing to spread their 
unfledged wings in Oriental gales. Having once 
for all faced the question of a life-work, and 
having decided it intelligently and conscientiously 
in the light of the Word of God, the call of God, 
and by the Spirit of God, they will be in no dan- 
ger of abandoning it without as clear a call to 
leave as they had to enter it. They should have 
good health and be able to pass the examination 
of any life insurance company. They should 
be active in mind, versatile and adaptable. 

''There are very few such young people," some ground for 
will say. There are Unlimited numbers of them supply 
— or, if not, there should be. In other lines of 
enterprise the demand creates the supply. The 
man that could do great things at home, in strong 
competition with hosts of others, may do much 
greater things abroad where there is no com- 
petition at all. Not until the best young men 



244 The Uplift of China 

and women of the Christian Church recognize 
the magnitude and the urgency of the work, to 
do which the Church was by her Master set 
apart, but which she is visibly not doing, will 
the anemic life of that Church be replaced by 
the glow of returning health. 
Dedication of In all the varied departments already noted 
Powers to there is indefinite scope for young men and 

Mightiest Task , •«, < 

young women of tact, skill, and consecration. 
No one is wise enough to forecast the future, 
yet it is altogether probable that the door of 
opportunity may not always be open. It is not 
a call to sacrifice, but to privilege; to the most 
permanently productive investment of influence, 
and to the dedication of the highest powers to 
the mightiest task yet remaining to the Christian 
Church. Unless to every reader it be a call to 
earnest prayer for the regeneration of China 
this book will have failed of its purpose. "And 
the teachers that be wise shall shine as the 
brightness of the firmament; and they that turn 
many to righteousness as the stars for ever and 
ever." 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 245 

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VIII 

1. If visitors should arrive in this country from 
Mars, with ideas far in advance of our own, 
describe what you think would be the effect. 

2. How would the results compare with those 
in a country as deficient in facilities for com- 
munication and transportation as was China 
fifty years ago? 

3. Sum up all the reasons that might lead you 
to hesitate in adopting the ideas of visitors 
from Mars. 

4* Compare these with the reasons that have 

retarded the development of China? 
5. What have been the lessons for China of the 

wars of the last fifty years? 
6* Arrange the recent changes in what seems to 

you the order of their missionary importance, 

and give reasons for your view. 

7. Compare the present educational system in 
China with those of America and Europe a 
hundred years ago. 

8. For what reasons may we expect that the 
educational developments in China will be 
more rapid than in the countries just men- 
tioned? 

9* What will be some of the effects on the nation 
of the new education? Of the development 
of the railway and postal systems? Of the 
anti-opium campaign? 

10. Have changes of such importance ever before 
affected so vast a population in so brief a time? 

11. Will the material changes strengthen or 
weaken the social and moral forces already 
existing? 



246 The Uplift of China 

12.* How will the entrance of Western industrial 

methods affect them? 
13.* What sort of moral forces will be needed 

in Chinese society under the new conditions? 

14. Through what agencies do you think the 
needed moral forces can be best introduced 
into Chinese society? 

15. What is the special value of Christian litera- 
ture at the present time? Of medical work? 
Of educational work? 

16.* Why is a time of rapid change of special im- 
portance in the life of a nation? 

17. Why are precedents then set harder to change 
afterward ? 

18.* Compare the call of China with other calls 
now before the Christian Church. 

19.* State as impressively as you can the oppor- 
tunity of the present in China. 

20. What claim has this opportunity on your 
money and prayer and life? 

References for Adv\nced Study — Chapter VIII 

I. Recent Political Changes. 

China Mission Year Book, 1910, II. 
China Mission Year Book, 191 1, II, III. 
Brown, Chinese Revolution, III, VI. 
Reinsch: Intellectual and Political Currents in 
the Far East, VI. 

II. Reform. 

China Mission Year Book, 191 1, XXXI. 

Ross: The Changing Chinese, VI, VII. 

Cecil: Changing China, IX, X. 

Reinsch: Intellectual and Political Currents in 

the Far East, IV. 
Blakeslee: China and the Far East, IX. 



Transformation, Condition, Appeal 247 

III. New Education. 

China Mission Year Book, 1910, III. 

China Mission Year Book, 191 1, V. 

Brown: The Chinese Revolution, IV. 

Ross: The Changing Chinese, X. 

Cecil: Changing China, XXI-XXIV. 

Reinsch: Intellectual and Political Currents in 

the Far East, V. 
Colquhoun : China in Transformation, VI. 
Burton : The Education of Women in China, V-X. 
Blakeslee : China and the Far East, XIII, XV. 
Annals of the American Academy of Political 

and Social Science, January, 1912, 83-96. 

IV. Communication. 

Brown: Chinese Revolution, II. 
Colquhoun: China in Transformation, XI, and 
Appendix I. 



APPENDIXES 



Appendix A 251 



APPENDIX A 

The Orthography and Pronunciation of Chinese 

Names 

There is no entirely satisfactory method of repre- 
senting all Chinese sounds in roman letters. Further- 
more, in different parts of the empire many of those 
sounds materially vary. Early writers on China adopted 
the French spelling and pronunciation. Those who 
have followed have too often written — as travelers still 
do— every man that which is right in his own ears. 
Within the last forty years, however, the system of 
romanuation of Sir Thomas Wade may be said to 
have become definitely established, and is indeed the 
only standard. As with any system there are infelicities, 
but its general adoption in China renders advisable its 
use out of China as well. It should be studied by the 
aid of the appended key to pronunciation borrowed 
from Professor Beach's Dawn on the Hills of T'ang. 
The vicious and intolerable misprc nunciation of Chinese 
names now generally current ought thus to be gradually 
corrected. 

A few observations should be made on some excep- 
tions to the use of Wade's system, and on the division 
and hyphenation of Chinese names. The names of a 
few Chinese cities have a well-recognized notation 
which it would be affectation to attempt to alter. It 
is as out of place to insist upon writing Kuang-chou fu 
for Canton, or T'ien-ching for Tientsin, as to set down 
Najyoli and Bruxelles for Naoles and Brussels. There 
are other words in which it is likewise inexpedient to 
sacrifice intelligibility to mechanical uniformity. In 



252 Appendix A 

central China a final letter is often dropped, and thus 
grew up the notation Pekin and Nankin, instead of 
Peking and Nanking, which should always be used. 
There is an aspirate usually marked by an inverted 
apostrophe, as T'ai P'ing. 

The names of cities should not be written as one 
word — e. g., Paotingfu, but separately with or without 
capitals, either Pao Ting Fu or Pao-ting fu; never 
Pao-ting-fu. The first two syllables are related in 
meaning (Guarding Tranquillity), while the third shows 
the rank of the city as prefectural (governing a group 
of county-seats). 

The surname precedes the name and should always 
be separately written without the hyphen. If the per- 
sonal name has two characters they may be written 
separately, or better connected by a hyphen. These 
principles may be illustrated in the three syllables con- 
noting the designation of China's best known modern 
statesmen. Do not write Lihungchang; or Li-hung- 
chang; or Li-Hung-Chang ; but either Li Hung Chang, 
or (better) Li Hung-chang. 

a as in father i as in pin, when before n 

ai as in aisle and ng 

ao as ow in now ia as eo in geology 

*ch as / in ;ar iao as e ou in me out 

ch' as in change ie as in szVsta 

e as in p^rch *ih as er in ov^r 

e in eh, en, as in yet, -when iu as eu in Jehu, when h 

el as ey in wh<?;y is omitted 

*hs as hss in hissing, when */ as the first r in regular 

the first * is omitted *k as g in game 

* as in machine, when it k e as k 

stands alone or at the ng as in sing 

end of a word *o as oa in boa-constrictor 



Appendix A 253 

ou as in though ua as oe in shoe on 

*/> as b uai as ey in two eyes 

p' as p uei as way 

rh as rr in burr ui as ^ze/y in screwy 

ss as in hijj *w as final a in America 

*t as J *w as French u or German 

fas f u 

*ts as cto in paa\? *ua as French u plus a in 

to' as in cato an 

*to as ds in pao\y *w^ as French u plus £ in 

tz' as to in cato y£t 

« as 00 in tea 

* Those thus marked have no close English equiva- 
lents. Consonants followed by an aspirate (') are 
almost like the same in English ; the same consonants 
without the aspirate are more difficult to correctly pro- 
nounce. 



APPENDIX B 

Bibliography 

Country and People 

Williams, S. W. The Middle Kingdom. 2 Vols. 
(Second edition, '83). Charles Scribner's Sons, 
New York. $9.00. 

The standard reference work in English, treating China for 
the last century. The chapters on government, literature, relig- 
ions, and history are especially valuable. 

Smith, Arthur H. Chinese Characteristics. 1894. Flem- 
ing H. Revell Company, New York. $2.00 

The best work on the characteristics of the Chinese, by a keen 
observer and brilliant writer. A most entertaining and readable 
book. 

* 

Holcombe, Chester. The Real Chinaman. 1895. Dodd, 

Mead & Co., New York. $2.00. 
Holcombe, Chester. The Real Chinese Question. 1900. 

Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $1.50. 

The author was for years in the diplomatic service and tries 
to show the Chinese view-point. ■«. 

Colquhoun, A. R. China in Transformation. Revised 
edition, 1912. Harper & Bros., New York. $1.50. 

The first edition appeared in 1898 and was one of the best books 
of its kind. It is now thoroughly revised, with several new chap- 
ters added. 

Ross, E. A. The Changing Chinese. 191 1. The Cen- 
tury Company, New York. $2.50. 

Written by a professor of sociology, this book contains much 
that would escape the ordinary observer. Perhaps the most 
readable of the recent books. 

Reinsch, P. S. Intellectual and Political Currents in the 
Far East. 191 1. Houghton Mifflin Co., New 
York. 

Another work by a university professor and careful student 
of the East. Three very full chapters on China. 



Appendix B 255 

Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord William. Changing China. 1910. 
D. Appleton & Co., New York. $2.00. 

A record of a survey of China made in behalf of the United Uni- 
versities Scheme. Discussions from educational and missionary- 
standpoints. 

Blakeslee, G. H., editor. China and the Far East. 1910. 
T. Y. Crowell Co., New York. $2.00. 

A symposium of addresses delivered at Clark University in 1909 
by many experts. Treats political, social, and religious conditions. 

China — Social and Economic Conditions. Annals of the 
American Academy of Political and Social 
Science. Whole Number 128, January, 1912. 
Another symposium containing several papers by Chinese. 

Ball, J. Dyer. The Chinese at Home. 1912. Fleming 
H. Revell Co., New York. $2.00, net 

One of the most recent books, written by an authority on China. 
He treats in detail nearly every phase of Chinese life. 

Smith, Arthur H. China and America To-day. 1907. 

Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. $1.25, net. 

Covers some ground of the present volume, but emphasizes 
strongly America's duty to China. 

Brown, Arthur J. The Chinese Revolution. 1912. 
Student Volunteer Movement, New York. 75 

cents. 

An interesting sketch of the present situation, -with parts of 
the author's New Forces in Old China incorporated. 

Special Subjects 
Chang Chih Tung. China's Only Hope. Translated by 
S. I. Woodbridge. Fleming H. Revell Co., New 
York. 75 cents. 

A trumpet-call to the nation written twelve years ago. A book 
that has exerted an immense influence. 

Douglas, Robert K. China (Story of the Nations 

Series). Revised. 1901. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 

New York. $1.50. 

A history of China, giving special attention to the last three 
centuries. Rather anti-Chinese in tone. 



256 Appendix B 

Bland, J. O. P., and Backhouse, E. China Under the 

Empress Dowager. 1910. J. B. Lippincott Co., 

Philadelphia. $4.00, net. 

A fascinating account of one of the great women of history. 
The authors have had access to sources of information not usually 
obtainable. 

Burton, Margaret E. The Education of Women in 
China. 191 1. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. 

$1.25. 

A valuable summary of what has been accomplished in this 
most important field. 

Morse, H. B. The Trade and Administration of the 

Chinese Empire. 1908. Longmans, Green & Co., 

New York. $2.50, net. 

Generally considered to be the most authoritative treatment of 
this subject. 

Religions 

De Groot, J. J. M. The Religion of the Chinese. 1910. 

The Macmillan Co., New York. $1.25. 

Lectures by an eminent authority, showing the psychological 
basis of Confucianism. Perhaps unduly appreciative of Buddhism. 

Douglas, Robert K. Confucianism and Taoism. Re- 
vised. 1906. E. S. Gorham, New York. 75 cents. 

One of the most satisfactory statements of the precepts of China's 
indigenous religions to be found in brief compass. 

Legge, James. The Religions of China. 1881. Charles 

Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.50. 

Four lectures delivered on Confucianism and Taoism, including 
a comparison with Christianity, by one of the ablest English au- 
thorities. 

Beal, S. Buddhism in China. 1884. E. S. Gorham, 

New York. 75 cents. 

An account of the introduction and history of Buddhism in 
China, with a valuable statement of the northern view of Buddha 
and his teaching. 



Appendix B 257 



Missions 

MacGillivray, D. The China Mission Year Book, 
volumes for 1910 and 191 1. Missionary Educa- 
tion Movement, New York. $1.25 and $1.50, re- 
spectively. 

Annual survey of missionary work and its setting which is in- 
dispensable. The many phases of work are treated by specially 
qualified writers. 

Centenary Missionary Conference Report, Shanghai, 

China, 1907. American Tract Society, New York 

$2.50, net. 

Contains resolutions and discussions of the Centenary Conference 
of 1,000 missionaries assembled in Shanghai in 1907. No student 
of missions in China can afford to ignore this volume. 

World Missionary Conference Report, Edinburgh, 1910. 

Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. 9 vols. $5.00. 

These reports lead up to weighty conclusions as to the prin- 
ciples of missionary work. China bulks large in the whole dis- 
cussion. 

Headland, Isaac T. China's New Day. 1912. Central 

Committee on the United Study of Missions, 

West Medford, Mass. Cloth, 50 cents ; paper, 

30 cents. 

Prepared as a text-book for the Central Committee on the United 
Study of Missions. 



Fisher, D. W. Calvin Wilson Mateer. 191 1. West- 
minster Press, Philadelphia. $1.50, net. 

The life of a strong man who did a great work of education and 
Bible translation in China. 



Hubbard, Ethel D. Under Marching Orders. 1909. 

Missionary Education Movement, New York. 

Cloth, 50 cents; paper, 35 cents. 

An attractively written sketch for young girls of the life of Mrs. 
F. D. Gamewell. 



258 Appendix B 

Soothill, W. E. A Typical Mission in China. 1906. 
Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. $1.50. 

Mission problems and mission methods discussed by one who 
has a keen sense of the needs of China. It contains most valuable 
information on the social and religious life of the Chinese. 

Gibson, J. Campbell. Mission Problems and Mission 
Methods in South China. 1901. Fleming H. 
Revell Co., New York. $1.50. 

An exceedingly well written volume, treating missionary prob- 
lems, their failures, their successes, and achievements, in a soientific 
and statesmanlike manner. 

Osgood, E. I. Breaking Down Chinese Walls. 1908. 
Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. $1.00. 

An interestingly written account by one who has conducted a 
hospital and dispensary in China for eight years, preaching the 
gospel and healing the sick in the villages round about. 

Kilborn, Omar L. Heal the Sick. 1910. Missionary- 
Society of the Methodist Church, Toronto. 50 
cents, cloth; 35 cents, paper. 

f Story of medical missions as carried on by a Canadian missionary 
in West China. Contains two chapters on the Canadian Methodist 
Medical Work. 



Appendix C 259 

APPENDIX C 
Area and Population 1 

Chinese Empire Popula - 

tion per 

Square miles Population sq. mile 

China Proper 1,532,420 407,253,030 266 

Dependencies : 

Manchuria 363,610 16,000,000 44 

Mongolia 1,367,600 2,600,000 2 

Tibet 463,200 6,500,000 14 

Chinese Turkestan, etc. 550,340 1,200,000 2 

Total 4,277,170 433,553,030 101 

Provinces of China 

An-hui 54,8io 23,670,314 432 

Che-chiang 36,670 11,580,692 316 

Chiang-hsi 69,480 26,532,125 382 

Chiang-su 38.600 13,980,235 362 

Chih-li 1 15,800 20,937,000 T72 

Fu-chien 46,320 22,876,540 494 

Ho-nan 67,940 35,316,800 520 

Hu-nan 83,380 22,169,673 266 

Hu-pei 71,410 35,280,685 492 

Kan-su 125,450 10,385,376 82 

Kuang-hsi 77,200 5,142,330 67 

Kuang-tung and Hong- 
kong oo,970 31,865,251 319 

Kuei-chou 67,160 7,650,282 114 

Shan-hsi 81,830 12,200,456 149 

Shan-tung 55,970 38,247,900 683 

Shen-hsi 75,270 8,450,182 in 

Ssu-ch'uan 218,480 68,724,890 314 

Yiin-nan 146,680 12,324,574 84 

Total 1,532,420 407,253,030 266 

1 Statesman's Year-Book, 1906. 



26 o Appendix D 

APPENDIX D 

Opium Edict, 1 September 20, 1906. 

" 1. Farmers are forbidden to plant new ground to 
poppies, and the area now used for that purpose must 
be diminished ten per cent, each year, and cease entirely 
at the end of the tenth year. 

2. All persons who use opium are required to reg- 
ister their names with the police and obtain permits 
which will allow them to purchase a given quantity of 
the drug at certain periods. All persons over sixty 
years of age may continue its use as at present, but all 
persons under that age will be required to reduce their 
consumption by twenty per cent, yearly, and cease to 
use it entirely at the end of five years. The permits 
are to be renewed annually, and the allowance indi- 
cated upon them will be reduced twenty per cent, in 
time and in quantity. At the end of the five years, per- 
sons under sixty-five years of age who continue to 
use opium will be compelled to wear a distinctive badge 
which will advertise them publicly as opium fiends. 

3. All government officials, even princes, dukes, vice- 
roys, and generals, less than sixty years of age, must 
give up the habit within six months or tender their 
resignations. 

4. All teachers and students must abandon the habit 
within one year. 

5. All officers of the army and navy must abandon 
the habit at once. 

1 The Baptist Missionary Magazine, April, 1907. 



Appendix D 261 

6. Dealers in opium are required to take out licenses, 
and to report all purchases and sales to the pohce. 
Their purchases of stock must decrease annually at the 
rate of twenty per cent., and at the end of five years 
must cease altogether. 

7. The number of licenses issued will decrease m 
the same proportion, so that the opium shops will be 
abolished gradually. 

8. The sale of pipes, lamps, and other smoking ap- 
pliances must cease within the year. 

9. All places of public resort for opium smoking are 
to be closed, and those who are addicted to the habit 
must practise it at their own homes. 

10. Violations of this law are to be punished by the 
imprisonment of the offenders and by the confiscation 
of all their property. 

11. The importation of morphia and other medicinal 
forms of opium and hypodermic syringes is permitted 
under most stringent regulations, and the sale limited 
to practising physicians. 

12. The government will establish dispensaries at 
which medicines to counteract the craving for opium 
will be furnished tc the public free of cost" 



262 Appendix E 



APPENDIX E 

Dates of Important Events in Modern 
Chinese History 

A. D. 

1275 Marco Polo arrived at Court of Kublai Khan. 

15 16 Portuguese arrived at Canton. 

1575 Spanish arrived at Canton. 

3580 Father Roger and Matteo Ricci entered Canton. 

1622 Dutch arrived in China. 

1635 English arrived at Canton. 

1660 Tea first carried to England. 

1670 Beginning of trade with the East India Company. 

1719 Beginning of commerce with Russia. 

1784 First American merchant vessel left New York 

for China. 
1792 Earl Macartney received by the emperor. 
1816 Lord Amherst's unsuccessful embassy. 
J834 Opium dispute begins. 
1839 Beginning of war with Great Britain. 
1842 August 29, treaty of peace signed at Nanking. 
1844 July 3, first treaty between United States and 

China. 
1859 November 24, commercial treaty with the United 

States. 
i860 October 13, British and French capture Peking. 
1864 T'ai P'ing rebellion crushed. 
1868 Burlingame treaty signed. 
1870 June 21, Tientsin massacre. 
l%73 June 29, foreign ministers received in audience by 

the emperor. 
1875 Death of Emperor T'ung Chih, and accession of 

present emperor. 



Appendix E 263 

1880 November 17, new treaty with the United States 
signed. 

1887 February, assumption of government by the 

Emperor Kuang Hsu. 

1888 American exclusion acts against Chinese passed. 
1891 Anti-foreign riots in the Yang-tzu valley. 

1894 War with Japan, concluded in 1905. 

1897 November, seizure of Kiao-chou by Germany. 

1898 March, Russia leases Port Arthur of China. 
Reform edicts by the emperor. 

Counter edicts by the empress dowager, and de- 
thronement of the emperor. 

1899 Rise of the Boxer movement. 

1900 June 17, capture of Taku forts by the allies. 

1900 June 20, murder of the German minister. Siege 

of the legations in Peking. 
1900 August 14, relief of the Peking legations by allies. 
1900 August 15, flight of the court to Hsi-an. 
1900 September 9, signing of the peace protocol. 
1902 January, return of the court to Peking. 
19C4 February 8 to September 5, 1905, war between 

Japan and Russia. 
1905 December, dispatch of two imperial commissions 

to America and Europe to study constitutional 

government. 
1905 Abolition of old style civil service examination. 

1905 Adoption of Occidental system of education. 

1906 Issue of imperial edict against opium. 

1907 Extension of educational privileges to women. 

1909 Introduction of Provincial Councils. 

1910 Meeting of National Assembly. 

191 1 Beginning of the revolution. 

1912 Imperial decree of abdication by Manchu clan. 
1912 Formation of the Republic of China with Yuan 

Shih-k'ai as provisional President. 



264 



Appendix F 



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Appendix G-Statistics of the Work of Protestant Missions in China for 1909-X9J0 

















Fro 

I iilM-r 


n th 


Chi 


■u SI 


cssion Yeaj 


Boo 


k, 191 1 
































Total Statl 


M slV 


J 

! 


1 

a 
1 


i 
I 


I 

1 


1 


I 


4J 

& 


1 
I 

J 
1 


Day or Primary Schools 


Schools and CcJlwres 


>'l 
II 


i 

-A 

M 


l 




11 




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1 






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3 


1 

h 


J 


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i 

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4 


I 

1 




NAME OF SOCIETY B 


i 
1 


I 


J 


1 


1 




1 

}3 


3 


I 

3 


A.lv. n; ( lirislian Mission 1897 








ii 








25 


, 




15 


44 


3 


10 


10 


500 


175 


675 




ISO 




275 




BO 




sua 


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Aiii.ric.ni IJ'OleSoci.ly.. . 1x4! 








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390 
































11.363 
















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EvaDgelicaI.\ssociic..iM,f Nun;, An.iTi.M '1901 




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328 













































































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174 








Totals— T. B. 1911 


l.xo 


1.337 


1.379 


■l.i,2< 


258 


130 


502 


7.2S1 


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2.781 


13.117! 


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1.25- 


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in H2 


5.51 


50.73 


1.17 


7.37 


3 V, 


45.X1 


2.71 


177.91- 


71,89 


2-;-i' 


297.976 5 


171 


1..1 


3121-0 


1,021 ,602 




Totals-Y.B. 1910 


1,402 


MS 


957 


4,299 


217 


66 


487 


5,714 


590 


ue 




11,66 


67X 


3,1V 


2.02 


U.7S 


4.43 


I.V73C 


1 11 


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34.01'. 


234 


19.-i.90. 


19.17. 


27-. i,i- 


298,687.56 


170 


131 


45,168 


S97.011 






oTVuVfl Siui-i,, 



(5) Alsoworki 
(7) Statistics 1 

'■ !i-:i? -s't.V.io-i 
^tioos is reported as 670. Al 
lode children, 
of reporting Contribni;,,,,, l, v i 



(n.) Including day scbnnls. 






(/) Including Ordained Church Workers. 



with ro=..:,.T.t forviTi !: 



»■" Iv H.r 1..0I number of stations in this tabic dc 

11 "d.Jr.l (-■.: Vt-ur Ui.uk fix li.ll", ■:■ 



s generally are under rather t 



INDEX 



267 



INDEX 1 



Abdication decree of Man- 
chu clan, 212 

Abel Yun (Yoon), 124 

Adherents and inquirers in 
the first stages, 160 

Afforestation, 17 

Agencies or forms of mis- 
sion work, 156-178, 230- 

239 

Agriculture, 14, 17 
Alexandria, Va., 137 
Allen, Dr. Young J., 170, 

233 

Altar of Heaven, 89 

American, Baptists, North, 
148, 202; Bible Society, 
the, 169, 202 ; Board of 
Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions, 147, 186, 
198 ; educational institu- 
tions, 236; Methodist 
press, 171 ; Presbyterian 
Board, see Board of For- 
eign Missions of the Pres- 
byterian Church in the U. 
S. A.; Presbyterian Press, 
171 ; Reformed Church 
Mission at Amoy, 149, 
202 ; Southern Baptist 
Mission, 149 

Amoy (E5), 133, 134, 149, 
215; missionary union in, 
202 

Ancestor-worship, 58, 96-98, 
185, 231 

Anglo-Chinese Dictionary, 
126 



An-hui (An-whe, E3), 147 

Antagonism to foreign na- 
tions, 225 

Anti-Opium movement, 222, 
260 ; results secured, 223, 
224 ; some counter-evils, 
223, 224 

Antiquity of Chinese race, 

Apostle and Missionary 
having same meaning, 157 

Ashmore, Dr. William, 150 

Asia, 1 

Awakening of China, 216- 
227, 239; seen in educa- 
tional changes, 194-197, 
218 

Baldwin, Dr. S. L., 147, 150 
Ball, J. Dyer, quoted, 54, 84 
Banks, system of, 15 
Baptisms, first, 159, 160 
Barley, 14 v 

Basel and Rhenish Mission- 
ary Societies, 146 
Bashford, Bishop J. W., 

quoted, 156 
"Belt of power, the," I 
Bengal, 8 
Berninger, Miss Martha, 

178 
Bible, 134, 242; circulation, 
169; familiarity of Chi- 
nese writers with, 238; 
Societies, 168, 169, 202; 
translation, 119, 122-127, 
147, 168, 169 

1 Pronunciation follows Chinese proper names, and the location of 
geographical places is shown on map at end of text-book. 
26g 



270 



Index 



Blind, mission blessings for 

the, 128, 168, 175 
Bloch, Future of War, 171 
Board of Foreign Missions 
of the Presbyterian 
Church in the U. S. A., 
148, 198 
Boatmen and boats, Chi- 
nese, 6, 7 
Body, care of the, 35 
Book of Changes, the, 93 
Book of Rites, the, 99 
Books and tracts, 159, 191 
Boone, Bishop, 149 
Boxer uprising, 105, 216, 
217; induced mission 
union movements, 198, 
199; influence of martyrs, 
238 
Boys' schools, 165 
Bredon, Sir Robert, 188 
Bridges, picturesque, 4 
Bridgman, Dr. Elijah C, 

146 
British and Foreign Bible 

Society, 168, 202 
Broomhall, Marshall, 194 
Brown, Arthur J., 184, 210 
Brown, Dr. S. R., 236 
Bryan, William Jennings, 

quoted, 54 
Bubonic plague, 11 
Buddhism in China, 4, 84, 
86, 106-108; effect on con- 
science, 109 
Budget, China's first, 221 
Bullion, use of, 14 
Burdon, Mr., 148 
Burns, William C, 131-137, 
150; early revival work, 
132; evangelistic career in 
China, 133-137 



Cabinet, 213, 221 



Cambaluc, later, Peking, 

119 
Canada, 132; Mission of 

Methodist Church of, in 

Ssu-ch'uan (Ssu-chooan), 

148, 202 
Canals, 6 
Candidates for government 

positions, 44 
Canon of Reason and Vir- 
tue, the, 100 
Canton (D5), 9, 10, 123, 130, 

176, 212, 215, 225 ; Prov- 
ince, see Kuang-tung 
Canton Missionary Alliance, 

177 
Care of the body, 35 
Cash, Chinese, 14 
Caste little known, 36 
Cathay, 32 

Cemetery, model of, 174 
Chalmers, Dr. John, 147 
Chang (Jang), 102 
Chang Chih-tung (Jang- 

Jer-doong), quoted, 84 
Chang-chou (Jang-jo, E5), 

134 
Ch'ao-chou (Chow- jo, E5), 

136 
Characters transformed by 

Christianity, 230-232 
Che-chiang (Ju-jeang, E4), 

16 
Ch'eng-tu (Chiing-doo, B3), 

202 
Chiang-hsi (Jeang-she, E4), 

41, 147, 160 
Ch'ien Lung (Cheen- 

Loong), Emperor, 60 
Chih-li (Jer-le, E2), 8, 10, 

103, 232, 235 
Childhood in China. 76 
China Inland Mission, 149, 

160, 202 
China Proper, area, 2; cli- 



Index 



271 



mate, 1, 9, 10; coast-line, 
I, 19; conditions and des- 
tiny, 19; currency, 14, 15 \ 
favorable situation, 1 ; im- 
proved methods, 17; in- 
ventions, 47; investments, 
16; irrigation, 14; lakes, 
7 ; mountains, 1 ; names 
for, 1 ; original settlers, 
1 ; physical features, 1-10 ; 
political and social 
changes, 211-222; popula- 
tion, see Population; pro- 
ducts, n-14; progress of 
Christianity, 145-15 1, 189, 
228-239; railways, 18, 224, 
225; reform, 222-224; 
rivers, 1; scenery, 4; 
wealth, 15, 16 

"China's Sorrow," 5 

Chi-nan (Je-nan, E2), 174 

Chinese Church, the, 188- 
205 

Chinese Empire, 1 ; area, 
2; divisions and depend- 
encies, 1, 2; population, 3 

Chinese family, a new spirit 
needed, 78; the collective 
household, 57; patriarchal 
type, 56 

Chinese manuscript in Brit- 
ish Museum, 122 

Chinese officials, bad and 
good, 63, 64 

Chinese people, adaptive- 
ness, 38, 39; anomalies of 
character, 72 ; conserva- 
tive, 46; contending with 
extreme poverty, 16; ed- 
ucated, 194; hedged about 
by formality, 85 ; industry 
and economy, 41, 42; in- 
novation difficult among, 
58-60; long-enduring, 64; 
meals and home without 



social zest, yy\ of some- 
what cruel nature, 71 ; 
qualities inherent and 
lacking, 38-47, 184, 231; 
social system defective, 
54-78; value as immi- 
grants, 42 
Chinese Repository, the, 146 
Chinese Republic, see Re- 
public of China 
Chinese work in Japan, 177 
Ch'ing-chou (Ching-jo, E2), 

74 
Chiu-chiang (Jeoo-jeang, 

E4) ; 147 

Cholera, 11 

Chou (Jo) dynasty, the, 30 

Christ, 55, 78, 237; a Savior, 
no; creates human 
brotherhood, 230 

Christian home, effect of, 
the, 162 

Christian Literature So- 
ciety, 170 

Christianity, an ancient faith 
in China, 118; divisions 
harmful, 200; power to 
uplift and transform, 20, 
100, 135, 229-239 

Chu Hsi (Joo She), com- 
mentator, 32 

Chung-ch'ing (Joong-chmg, 

C 4)»5 

Church Missionary Society, 
148, 149, 202 

Church, problem of native, 
201-205 

Cigarette habit, 223 

Circulation of the Scrip- 
tures, 169 

City walls, with ivy, 4 

Civil service changes, 218, 
219 

Civilization East and West, 
233 



272 



Index 



Classics, teachings of the, 
34 

Climate, 9 

Coal, 11-13 

Coast-line of China, 1, 19 

Cobbold, Mr., 148 

Collins, Judson D., 147 

Colporteurs, 159 

Comity and federation, 194 

Commerce, 19 

Communistic ideas, 31 

Compass, mariners', 47, 214 

Conference of foreign mis- 
sion boards of North 
America, 203 

Confucianism, 84-88, 99, 185 

Confucius, avoids a difficult 
problem, 94; idea of good 
government, 90; worship 
of, 96, 210 

Constitutional government, 
, 220-222 

Conventions successful, 176 

Cooperation in missions, 
198-200 

Copper, 1-3 

Cornaby, Rev. William A., 
171 

Corruption, temptation to, 

Corvino, Monte, 119 
Cotton, 14, 18, 214 
Currency, the, 14, 15 
Cushing, Caleb, 130 
Dates in modern Chinese 
history, 2, 54, 262, 263 



Deaf-mutes, missionary care 

of, 175 
Deforestation, 16 
De Groot, Dr., 185 
Democracy set free, 220, 

221 
Dialects, Chinese, 133 



Dignity not a fruit of the 

Spirit, 78 
Diphtheria, 11 
Discoveries made by the 

Chinese, 38, 214 
Disobedience to parents 

counted a crime, 35 
Dispensaries, 126, 128, 162, 

220-223 
Divisions, see Christianity 
Doolittle, Justice, 147 
Dragon King, a, 102, 103 
Du Bose, H. C, quoted, 84 
Duke Chou (Jo), 96 
Dust storms, 17 
Dynasties, founder of, 32; 

table of, 264 



Earth-dragon, the, 18 

East India Company, 122- 

126, 215 
Edinburgh Conference, 201, 

202 
Educational Association of 

China, the, 172, 191 
Educational system of 
China, earlier ideal, 35, 
61 ; new needs and stand- 
ard, 78, 194-196 
Educational work of mis- 
sions, 126, 146, 164-168; 
industrial schools, 167 ; 
problems, 196-198; train- 
ing schools for women, 
166, 167 
Eight Fairies, the, 101 
Eight Immortals, the, 102 
Eighteen Provinces, the, 3; 

see also China Proper 
Emperor, the, 216-219 
Emperors, Chinese, 31-34; 

worship of early, 96 
Empress Dowager, 216-219, 
236 



Index 



273 



Engineering skill required, 

17 

English Baptist Missionary 
Museum, 173 

English Presbyterian 
Church, Missions, 132, 202 

Epidemic diseases, II 

Episcopal missions, 148, 149; 
see also Church Mission- 
ary Society and Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church, 
Mission 

European ships visit China, 

32 . 

Evangelistic work, 131-137, 

140, 150, 157-162, 229-233 
Evangelists, native, 140 
Evolution of a mission, 157- 

174 

Examinations, Chinese, 01, 
62; now abolished, 218 

Faber, Dr., 233; quoted, 95 
''Face" defined, 70 
Faith required, 58 
Falsehood prevalent, 78 
Family, Chinese, see Chi- 
nese family 
Famines and famine relief, 

17, 158, 175 
Farmer, Chinese view of 

the, 36 
Feng-shui (fung-shooe), 13, 

18 
Fertilizers, 14 
Filial piety of the Chinese, 

35, 60 
Five Constant Virtues, the, 

91 
Five open ports, 215 
Five Social Relations, the, 

92 
Floods, destructive, 17 
Foot-binding, 75 
Foreign, aggression, 16; in- 



tervention dreaded, 225, 
226 
Foreigners, Chinese early 
attitude toward, 66; influ- 
ence of on China, 189, 215- 

239 

Forests destroyed, 16 
Foster, Hon. John W., 

quoted, 183, 210 
'Tour Streams," 5 
France, war with, 215, 216 
Francis Xavier, 119 
French, Mr., 148 _ • 
Fu-chien (Foo-jeen, E4), 

40, 166, 231 
Fu-chou (Foo-jo, E4), 136, 

147, 164, 170, 212, 215 
Fulton, Dr. Mary, 164 

Gambling repressed, 224 

Gems, 13 

Genghis Khan, 40, 47 

Geomancy, 13, 18 

Gibbon, quoted, 87 

Gibson, Dr. J. Campbell, 

quoted, 72 
Giles, Herbert Allen, 

quoted, 84 
Girls' education, 165, 166, 

237 

God, a new idea of, given to 
China, 229, 230 

Gods, of non-Christian 
faiths, 16, 89, 96, 101-109 

Gold, 13 

Gorges of the Yang-tzii 
(Yang-dsii), 4, 5 

Government, of China, 33, 
61-66; appointees, 44; 
change to a republic, 188, 
212; democratic feature, 
184, 221 ; recent Manchu 
evolution, 214-225 ; revo- 
lution and republic, 184, 
186, 210-213 ) toleration, 



274 



Index 



185-191 ; see also Confu- 
cius 

Gracey, J. T\, quoted, 28 

Grand Canal, the, 6, 47, 135 

Grand Council, 221 

Gray, Archdeacon, quoted, 

57, 59 

Great Britain, 2, 130, 135; 
war with, 215 

Great Plain, the, 8; rain- 
fall on, 10 

Great Pure dynasty, the, 32 

Great Wall, the, 30 

Guilds, the, 43 

Gulf Stream, 9 

Gunpowder, 47, 214 

GutzlafT, Dr. Karl, 146 



Han-ch'uan (Han-chooan, 

D3, near Han-k'ou), 139 
Han (Han) dynasty, the, 31, 

218 
Han-k'ou (Han-ko, D3), 5, 

19, 138, 144, 145, 170, 212 
Han Wen-kung (Han Wun- 

goong), 103 
Han- Yang (Han-yang, D3), 

212 
Hang-chou (Hang- jo, F3), 

6 
Happer, Dr. A. J., 148 
Hart, Mr. and Mrs. Virgil 

C, 147 
Harvard Medical College in 

Shanghai, 235 
Health of foreigners, 11 
Heaven, worshiped by the 

emperor, 89; Temple of, 

89 
Heber, Bishop Reginald, 

quoted, 116 
History, China's, 29, 47; of 

the Chinese-Japane€e war, 

Dr. Allen's, 233 



History of the Nineteenth 

Century, 233 
Hobson, Dr., 147 
Holidays, 42 

Holy Man, the, a title, 95 
Holy Spirit, the, 132, 240- 

243 
Hongkong (D5), 10, 11, 

133, 175, 236 
Hospitals, statistics of, 234, 

265 
Household, see Chinese 

family 
Hsi-an fu (She-an foo, G3), 

200, 217 
Hsien Feng (Sheen Fung), 

Emperor, 90 
Huang Ho (Hooang Hou), 

5, 6 
Hugo, Victor, quoted, 213 
Hu-nan (Hoo-nan, D4), 211 
Hu-pei (Hoo-ba, D3), 147, 

211 



I-ch'ang (E-chang, D3), 5, 
225 

Illusion dispelled, 199 

Immigrants, Chinese as, 42 

Indemnity, 3 

Independent Chinese 
Church, see Church 

India, 9, 10 

Indian corn introduced, 214 

Indigo, 14 

Individual regeneration the 
aim, 232 

Industry of Chinese, 41, 42 

Ingle, Bishop James Addi- 
son, 137-145 

Innovation difficult, 58, 66 

Inquirers, early, 160 

Intellectual tasks of the Chi- 
nese, 44 

Inventions and discoveries 



Index 



275 



by Chinese, 47, 214; re- 
cent, by native, as aid to 
reading, 172 

Investment of influence, 244 

Investments in China, few 
safe, 16 

Iron, n-13 

Irrigation. 14 

Islam in China, 194 

Itineration in mission work, 
159, 160 

Japan, 4; Current, 9; effect 
of her success, 216; stu- 
dents from China in, 63 

Jeme Tien-Yow, 225 

Jesuits, the, 200 

Jews in K'ai-feng (Ki- 
fung), 86 

John, called Monte Cor- 
vino, 119 

John, Dr. Griffith, 145, 149, 
150 ; quoted, 145 

Johnson, Stephen, 147 

K'ai-feng (Ki-fung, D3), 86 

Kalgan (Di), 225 

Kerr, Dr. J. G., 148, 175, 

176 
Kindergarten work, 164 
Kuan Ti (Gooan De), god 

of war, 96 
Kuan Yin (Gooan Yin), 

goddess of mercy, 109 
Kuan g-hsi (Gooang-she, 

C5), 3 
Kuang Hsu (Gooang-shoo), 

216 
Kuang-tung ( Gooang- 

doong, D5), 224 
Kublai Khan, 32, 119 
Kuei-chou (Gooa-jo, C3), 3, 

199, 203 
K'ung (Koong) family, the, 

95 



Lakes, 8 

Lao-tzu (Low-dsu), 100, 102 

Leaders needed, 194 

Lecturers, 173 

Legge, Dr. James, 147; 

quoted, 94, 95, 98 
Lepers, asylums for, 175 
Liang A-fa (Leang A-fa), 

. J S° 

Liberty of conscience as- 
sured, 191 

LiHung-chang (Le Hoong- 
jang) Dragon King wor- 
ship, 103 ; view of mission 
work, 116; of the Xew 
Testament, 99 

Life, the new civic, 213 

Lin (Lin), Commissioner, 

.39 
Lin-ch'ing (Lin-ching, E2, 

west of Chi-nan), 6 
Literary work, 146-150, 168- 

172, 233 
Little, Mrs. Archibald, 214; 

quoted, 13, 75 
Loans, interest on, 16 
Lockhart, Dr., 148 
Lockhart Union Medical 

College, 234 
Loess soil, the, 8; map, 12 
London Missionary Society, 

121, 125, 145, 198 
Lowrie, Rev. Walter M., 

148 
Lu (Loo), god of barbers, 

102 

Macao, 124, 236 
Macgowan, Dr. J. D., 148 
Mackenzie, Dr. Kenneth, 

149 
McCartee, Dr. D. B., 148 
Madison, James, Secretary 

of State, 123 
Maize and millet, 14 



276 



Index 



Manchu, clan's imperial de- 
cree of abdication, 212; 
duke, address of, 173; 
rulers, 32 

Manchuria, 1, 2, 8, 19, 136; 
ready response to Chris- 
tian appeal, 231, 232; ter- 
rible pneumonic plague, 
234 

Manchus, the, 132, 190 

Mandarins, 17 

Manufacturers of the future, 
18 

Maps, coal, iron, and soil 
areas, 12; lines of trans- 
portation, 7 

Marco Polo, 32, 200 

Maritime customs, 225 

Marriage customs, 56 

Martin, Dr. W. A. P., 75> 
86, 92 

Martyrs in China, influence 
of, 150, 238 

Mass movement possible, 
194 

Match-maker, the, 57 

Mechanic, Chinese view of 
the, 36 

Medhurst, Dr., 148 

Medical helpers, 235, 241 

Medical missions, 162-164, 
234-236; founder of, 127; 
tours, 162; woman's op- 
portunity, 164 

Meeting at Wuchang, 211 

Memorizing the classics, 44 

Mencius, 34 

Message and resolutions 
favoring Chinese Church, 
202 

Message of President Yuan 
to Christians, 188-191 

Methodist Church in Can- 
ada, Mission, 147, 148 

Methodist Episcopal 



Church, Missions, 147, 
198, 202 

Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, Mission, 
149 

Miao tribes, 193 

Middle Kingdom, 1 ; see also 
China Proper 

Mills, Mrs., in Chefoo, 175 

Milne, Rev. William, 125, 
146, 150 

Mineral resources, 11, 13 

Ming dynasty, 32 

Minor faiths, 85 

Mints, the provincial, 15 

Mission, press, 148, 149, 171 ; 
schools, 164-168, see Edu- 
cational work and 
Schools; study classes, 

243 
Missionaries, 116-151, 228; 
need of reinforcements, 
151, 239-244 
Missionary, agencies, 156- 
182, 232-237; see also sep- 
arate topics, as Educa- 
tional work; problems, 
191-205, 210; results, 234- 
238, 265 
Missions, Protestant, 121- 
182, 200, 201, 229; move- 
ment toward union, 198- 
204; three periods, 145- 
150; woman's work, 160- 
162 
Models of buildings, 174 
Mohammedanism, 85, 194 
Mollendorf, quoted, 74 
Monarchy, Chinese govern- 
ment formerly a, 33 
Mongol, dynasty, 32; prin- 
cess at lecture, 173 
Mongolia, 2, 3, 20 
Mongols, the, 173, 190 
Monotheistic worship, 89 



Index 



277 



Monsoon, the southwest, 10 

Morrison, Robert, 121-127, 
200 ; famous reply of, 124 ; 
memorial building to, 177; 
translation of Bible, 125, 
126; work summarized, 
126, 127 

Morton, Miss Mary, 124 

Motives in reforms by Em- 
press Dowager, 217, 218 

Mott, Dr. John R., 202 

Mountains, 1, 4 

Muirhead, Dr., 148 

Murray, Mr., 175 

Museum, as missionary- 
agency, 173, 174 t 

Mutual responsibility of the 
Chinese family, 59 



Nanking (E3), 212, 215 
Napoleon of China, the, 31 
Napoleon's view of China's 

awakening, 227 
National, Assembly, 191, 

192, 220, 221 ; Parliament, 

220, 221 
Native preachers, 160 
Nature worship, 96 
Nervousness, absence of, 40 
Nestorian, tablet, 118, 200; 

work in China, 117 
Neutrality of thought 

among missions to give 

way to unity, 201 
Nevius, Dr. J. L., 149, 150; 

quoted. 57, 156, 183 
Nevius, Mrs., 149 
New China, 184, 186, 212, 

226, 227 
New York, 203 
Niles, Dr. Mary, 164 
Ning-po (Nmg-pou, F4), 

148, 215 
Nitrous efflorescence, 8 



Niu-chu'ang (Neoo-choo- 
ang, Fi), 137 

Nominal Christianity may 
be a mass movement to- 
ward, 193 

Nonconformity, 185, 210 

North China, American Col- 
lege Club, 188; Educa- 
tional Union, 198 

North China Herald, quoted, 

57 
Northern China, 4, 9, 10 



Object-lesson of the Chris- 
tian home, 162 

Occident, influence of in the 
Orient, 216 

Official, accountability, 65 ; 
position, how secured, 35, 
61 

Olopun, Syrian priest in 
China, 118 

Opening of China, 20, 215 

Ophthalmic Hospital, 128 

Opium, 14; evil of, 39, 164; 
imperial edict against, 222, 
260 ; International Con- 
ference on, 223 ; pipes de- 
stroyed, 223 ; smokers, 
163; trade in, 215, 224; 
War, 130 

Orphanages, 175 



Pacific Ocean, mastery of 

the, 19, 20 
Pagoda, the, 4 
Panto j a, Father, 120 
Pao-ting fu (Bow-dmg foo, 

E2), 198 
Paper, 214 
Parker, Dr. Peter, 127-131, 

150; favorite expression, 

129; opens Ophthalmic 



278 



Index 



Hospital, 128; remarkable 
success, 128, 129; United 
States Commissioner, 131 

Parker, Professor, quoted, 
63 

Parliament, National, 220, 
221 

Patriarchal system, the, 33, 
62 

Patriotism, undeveloped, 62; 
will grow, 213, 220-222 

Pearly Emperor Supreme 
Ruler, 102 

Pechuia, 135, 136 

Peet, Mr. and Mrs., 147 

Peking (E2), 9, 89, 119, 124, 
136, 148, 170,220, 222, 234; 
Protestant colleges in, 
198; thanksgiving service 
for republic in, 186-191 

Persecution, 86 

Physical vitality of Chinese, 
37 

Pilgrim's Progress, trans- 
lated, 133, 136 

Pioneer evangelistic work, 
158, 189, 201, 228, 229 

Pioneers, summary review 
of, 145-150 

Plague, pneumonic, 234, 235 

Political assumption t)f 
Roman Catholic Church, 
121 

Poppy, cultivation of the, 
40; repressive measures, 
222, 224, 260 

Population, China Proper, 
2 > 3) 2 59 > Chinese Em- 
pire, 3, 259 ; density, 3, 8 ; 
Great Plain, 8 

Porcelain, 47 

Postal system, 225 

Poverty of the people, 16, 71 

Power, abuse of, 63 



P'o-yang (Pou-yang, E4) 
Lake, 8 

Practise and theory in gov- 
ernment, 63 

Presidents of republic, Pro- 
visional, 186-189, I 9 2 > 212, 
213 

Press unwarned, 211 

Presses, mission, 171 ; see 
also Literary work 

Priests of native religions, 
104, 107 

Princess, Mongol, educating 
girls, 173 

Printing, invention of, 47, 
214 

Privacy, unknown in the 
East, 68 

Products, 1, 11, 14 

Property, held in common, 
57 

Protestant Episcopal 
Church, Mission, at 
Shanghai, 148, 149; at 
Han - k'ou ( Han - ko ) , 
work of Bishop James 
Addison Ingle, 137-145 

Protestant missions, see 
Missions 

Proverbs, Chinese, 29 

Provinces, the Eighteen, 1 ; 
size of, 3, 4; see also 
China Proper, and sepa- 
rate provinces, as An-hui 
(An-whe) 

Provincial Councils, 219. 221 

Provisional Cabinet, Chris- 
tians in, 213 

Public opinion, 33, 68 

Pu Hsien (Boo Sheen), 
god of action, 109 

P'ung (Poong), Mr., 98 

Pupils in missionary col- 
leges, 236 



Index 



279 



Qualifications for work, 240- 
Quebec, 2 

Race, the Chinese, 29; 
traits, 37-47 

Railroads or Railways, 
mileage, 18, 225 ; lines, 12, 
13; revenue from, 18 

Rain and rainfall, 10 

Rapids of the Yang-tzii 
(Yang-dsu), 5 

Red soil basin, map, 12 

Reformed Church, 202 

Religion, no Chinese word 
for, 87 

Religions of China, 84-114, 
185; Buddhism, 84, 87, 
106-110; Confucianism, 
84, 87-100, 185, 210, 229; 
Judaism, 86; Mohammed- 
anism, 85, 86, 190, 194; 
Taoism, 84, 87, 100-106, 
216 

Republic of China, date of 
its inception, 212; events 
leading up to it, 211, 212, 
218-222 ; question of its 
permanence, 184. 213, 226- 
228 ; spirit of religious tol- 
eration, 186-191 

Resources, 17 

Respect for intellectual and 
moral forces, 44, 184 

Reverence for parents and 
rulers, 97 

Review of the Times, 170, 
232 

Revolution, the Chinese, 186, 
111-213, 226, 227 

Rice. 14 

Ricci, Matteo, 120 

Richard, Dr. Timothy, 170, 
233 

Rivers, 1, 5, 6 



Rockhill, Mr., 2 

Roger, Michael, 120 

Roman Catholic Missions, 
159, 186; early attempts, 
119, 120; industrial work, 
167; earlier history, 120, 
121, 200 

Russell, Mr., 148 

Sages, China's, 34, 210 

Sanitary work, 235 

Scenery of China, 4 

Schools, for boys, 165; for 
girls, 165, 166; higher in- 
stitutions, 167, 168; in- 
dustrial 167 ; training, 
166 ; various government 
and mission problems, 
194-199 

Scholar, Chinese view of 
the, 36 

Scotland, 131, 132; Bible 
Society of, 169 

Scriptures, see Bible 

Secret societies, 42, 43 

Self-discipline in converts, 
140, 141 

Self-maintenance urged, 141, 
242, 

Service, 207 

Shanghai (F3), 10, 135, 148, 
149, 170, 171, 178, 212, 
223 ; commercial metropo- 
lis, 19 

Shan-hsi (Shan-she, D2), 
8, 12, 75, 164 

Shan-tung (Shan-doong, 
E2), 3, 6, 136, 174, 232, 
235 

Sheffield, Dr., quoted, 93 

Siberia, plague in, 234 

Silk, 14 47, 211 

Skepticism general among 
educated men, 85 

Slavery, 224 



28o 



Index 



Slow evolution of China, 

214 
Smallpox, 11 
Society, the gradations in, 

36 
Soils, 1, 8; map, 12 
Soldier, Chinese view of 

the, 37; military force, 45 
Son of Heaven, 33 
"Sons of Han" (Han), 31; 

"of Tang" (Tang), 31 
Soothill, W. E., quoted, 116 
Southern China, 4, 9 
Speer, Robert E., 184 
Spirit world, the, 103 
Spirits, influence of, 93 
Ssti-ch'uan (Ssu-chooan, 

B4), 3, 5, 9, 14, 147, 199, 
202, 203 

Ssii-ma Kuang (Ssu-ma 
Gooang), historian, 31 

Standards of weight, 15 

Stations "manned" by 
ladies, 161 

Statistics of China, areas of 
China Proper and the 
Empire, 2 ; coal-bearing 
area, 11; foreign mis- 
sionaries, 239, 265 ; hos- 
pitals and _ patients, 234, 
265 ; offerings to Con- 
fucius, 95 ; population, see 
Population; pupils in mis- 
sion schools, 236, 265; 
railway mileage, 18; re- 
sults of missions, 265 

Staunton, Sir George, 122, 
124 

Steamers on the Yang-tzu 
(Yang-dsu), 5 

Stone-cutters of Kuang-hsi 
(Gooang-she), 41 

Street chapels, 159 

"Strikes" in schools, 196 



Stronach, Alexander and 

John, 147 
Strong drink peril, the, 39 
Student class, are China's 

aristocracy, 35 
Su-chou (Soo-jo, F3), 136 
Suicide, 42 
Sung (Soong) dynasty, 

the, 31 
Sun Yat-sen (Soon Yat- 

sun), Dr., 213 
Superintendent, work of 

the, 160 
Superstition, 13, 71 ; Taoist, 

in power of military an- 
cestors, 216 
Sutras of Taoism, the, 101 
Swatau (E5), 150 
Sympathy lacking, 71 ; 

causes of lack, 72 



Ta Ch'ing (Da Ching) 

dynasty, the, 32 

Tact, instance of, in pio- 
neering, 158 

Tael, the, 15 

T'ai-chou (TT-jo, F4), 194 

T'ai P'ing (Ti Ping) re- 
bellion, 215, 216; prayers 
during the, 90 

T'ai Tsung (TI Dsoong), 
received early Christians, 
118 

Talmage, John Van Nest, 
149, quoted, 202 

T'ang (Tang) dynasty, 
the, 14, 31, 200, 218 

Taoism, 84-86, 100-106; an 
evil, 84, 104-106; de- 
scribed, 87, 100; super- 
stitions of, 101-106 

Taoist, mass, 103; Pope, 
102 ; superstitious belief, 
216 



Index 



281 



Taxes and "ten cash" 
pieces, 15 

Taylor, J. Hudson, 149, 150 

Tea, 14 

Teaching of the sages, 34 

Temple of Heaven, 89 

Temples, 6 

Terraces of the loess 
country, the, 8 

"Thaumatrope," the, 192 

Theatricals, passion for, 45 

Theological seminary, how 
beginning, 160 

Theory and practise in gov- 
ernment, 63 

Thomson, Archdeacon, 137 

Three Pure Ones, the, 102 

Three Rulers, the, 102 

Tibet, 2, 3, 5, 20 

Tibetans, 190 

Tientsin, 6, 188 

Ting Li-mai (Ding Li-mi), 
Pastor, 232 

Tobacco, introduced, 214; 
use promoted by foreign- 
ers, 22T,, 224 

Toleration in Chinese Re- 
public, 186-191 

Tornadoes, unknown in 
China, 10 

Tract Society, American, 
170; Religious, of Lon- 
don, 170 

Tradesman, Chinese view 
of the, 36 

Training schools, 166 

Translations of Scriptures, 
119; see also Bible 

Transmigration of souls, 
106 

Transportation Map. 7 

Treaty rights of Christian 
missionaries, 190, 191 

Tubercular affections, 11 

Tung-chou (Doong-jo) 



Union Arts College, at, 

198 
Tung-t'ing (Doong-tmg,D4) 

Lake, 8 
Turkestan, 2, 3, 20 
Tyler, President, 131 
Typhoons, 10 

Ultra-Ganges Mission, 127 
Unemotional nature of the 

Chinese, 231 
Union, Academy for Girls, 

198; Arts College, 198; 

Medical College, 198; 

Theological College, 198; 

Woman's Medical College, 

198 ; Women's College, 

198; work of missions, 

198-204 
United States, 2, 9, 10, 19, 

123, 130, 131, 143, 145, 146, 

184, 225 
Unity of Church along 

Chinese lines, 205 ; of the 

parts of Chinese empire, 

225 
Uprising, Boxer; see Boxer 

uprising 



Village work, 134 
Volunteers, call for, 239-244 



Wai Wu Pu (WI Woo 

Boo), the, 188 
Wang An-shih (Wang An- 

sher) socialist, 31 
War, the Opium, 39 
Wars of China, with France 

and Great Britain, 215, 

216 
Wealth, 16 

Webster. Miss Harriet, 130 
Wei (Wa) River, 6 



282 



Index 



Wellesley College, commis- 
sioners' visit to, 236 

Wen Shu (Wiin Shoo), 
worshiped in Shan-hsi 
(Shan-she), 109 

Wen Wang (Wun Wang), 
Emperor, 96 

West China, Educational 
Union, 199; Mission, 147; 
Missionary Conference, 
202; "one united Church 
for West China," 203 

Westcott, Bishop, 201 

Western civilization, effect 
on China, 227, 228 

Wheat, 14 

White, Mioses C, 147 

Whitewright, Rev. J. S., 
174 

Williams, Dr. S. Wells, 
146; quoted, 9, 31, 98 

Williamson, Dr. Alexander, 
170 

Williamstown haystack 
place of prayer, 242 

Wives and women of China, 
bondage and burdens of, 
54, 73-76, 164, 218, 230; 
missionary agencies and 
work for, 160-162, 198, 
236, 237 

Women missionaries, see 
Missionaries 

Workers, call for, 239-244; 
developing, 142 ; number 
of Protestant, 239 

Worship of ancestors, 96, 



185; benefits and evils of, 

97 
Woolston, Misses Beulah 

and Sarah, 147 
Written characters, 214 
Wuchang (D3), 211 
Wu Wang (Woo Wang) 

Emperor, 96 
Wylie, Mr., 148 



Yang-tzu(Yang-dsu), 6, 8, 
212, 222; gorges of the, 
4, 5 

Yao (Yow) and Shun 
(Shoon), 30, 34, 46, 61, 
89, 96 

Yellow River, the, 5, 6 

Yen (Yun), Dr., 188, 192 

Yong Sam-tak (Yong Sam- 
dak), in London, 122 

Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation, 176, 177, 200, 
202 

Young people's organiza- 
tions, 176 

Young Women's Christian 
Association, 178, 200 

Yii (Yii), Emperor, 47 

Yuan (Yuan) dynasty, 32, 
200 

Yuan Shih-k'ai (Yuan She- 
ki), republic's leader and 
President, 186-189, 192, 
213; takes the oath, 212 

Yun-nan (Yoon-nan, B5), 
199, 203 



Forward Mission Study Courses 



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Prepared under the direction of the 
MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 

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Editorial Committee: T. H. P. Sailer, Chairman; A. E. 
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The Forward Mission Study Courses are an outgrowth of a 
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The books of the Movement are now being used by more than 
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The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering the 
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